Leberknoedelsuppe and a Fall Vegetable Saute

Leberknoedelsuppe is soup with a liver dumpling. Liver, dumplings, and soup are all well-loved in Austrian cuisine, so it's no surprise that this soup is very common. I happen to love Leberknoedelsuppe...mostly because I love liver.

Austria is live a liver oasis...there's liver paste for spreading on bread, liver dumplings for putting in soup, and raw liver to cook however you like. I think that my consumption of liver since I've moved here has jumped like, 1000% percent, which is fine with me.

It's very easy to make this soup. All you have to do is cook the purchased Leberknoedel (see below) in the broth of your choice. I don't think Leberknoedel are available in the US, but they're not hard to make if you find a recipe online. I have concocted a broth that Georg and I really like: 3 cups chicken broth, 3 cloves sliced garlic and 2 tbsp. ginger (not traditional, but good...Georg's mother thought of this addition), a few dashes of black pepper, and lots of fresh herbs. Tonight I made the soup with fresh basil from my plant, last time I made it with snipped chives and parsley and both times the soup was excellent. The ginger and black pepper make the broth a bit spicy and it pairs really well with the liver.
To go with the soup I made a fall vegetable saute. I used my roasted chestnuts (about 15), a leftover bulb of fennel, and a delicata squash.

I diced all of the ingredients and let them saute with a few tablespoons of olive oil. The squash needs a little longer to cook, so it's important to put some chicken stock or broth in the bottom of the pan so the rest of the vegetables don't burn while the squash finishes cooking. The starchiness of the chestnuts ensures that the liquid doesn't make the vegetables too watery.
To finish, I added a handful of fresh basil leaves for color. We both really liked this dish, the texture was very comforting and the combination of all the different flavors was interesting. And of course, I was glad I got to use my chestnuts!