Free Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities by Nigella Lawson

part of the meal you’re planning, without a lot of time to fuss over it; the recipes that follow are what make this meal, and others like it, possible.
    SOUPS
    CHESTNUT SOUP WITH BACON CRUMBLES
    ROAST SQUASH AND SWEET POTATO SOUP WITH BUTTERMILK BLUE CHEESE SWIRL
    TORTILLA SOUP
    CHESTNUT SOUP WITH BACON CRUMBLES
    This is not a million miles away from the chestnut soup in my first book, How to Eat, but the fact that I can’t leave it behind tells you not only how good it is, but how important familiarity, tradition and continuity are, especially at this time of year.
    I confess, I’d planned a celeriac and chestnut soup to go here: I’ve cooked it; I’ve loved it; I’d written the recipe. But as I sit writing, I find it’s my older, more basic soup that writes itself into the page. Taste it and you’ll see why: a meal in itself with a hunk of warm bread, or a make-ahead starter to bring some cold cuts to party-life, this soup manages to be comforting, elegant and simple all at the same time.
    Much as I love the golden intensity of chicken stock (and I’ll take mine from concentrate; it doesn’t always have to be homemade), I do think when you’re catering for groups of people it’s wise to make up meat-free soups with vegetable stock, so you can keep the vegetarians happy. Thus the bacon crumbles are, I suggest, better served apart, for those carnivores who might like to sprinkle them over their sweet, grainy soup.
    Enough to fill 10 soup bowls or 20 cups or small (200ml) mugs
    1 onion
    1 leek
    3 carrots
    2 sticks celery
    3 × 15ml tablespoons garlic oil
    500g red lentils
    3 litres vegetable stock (or chicken stock if preferred)
    500g vacuum-packed peeled chestnuts
    125ml amontillado sherry
    salt and pepper
    FOR SERVING:
    small bunch of parsley (optional)
    1 teaspoon garlic oil
    10 rashers American-style or other thin-cut streaky bacon
    • Either by hand, or using a processor, finely chop the onion, leek, carrots and celery.
    • Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based pan, and add the chopped vegetables, cooking for about 10 minutes on a medium to low heat, until softened a little.
    • Add the lentils, and turn them in the vegetable mush.
    • Add the stock and bring to the boil, then, with the heat down a little, let simmer for about 40 minutes or until the lentils are soft.
    • Add the chestnuts and liquidize the soup in batches, adding more water if it’s too thick. However, if you’re going to serve this at a later time, I wouldn’t bother to add water now, as the soup will inevitably thicken as it stands.
    • When you want to eat the soup, heat it in the pan along with the sherry, adding more liquid if needed, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
    • While the soup’s getting warm and ready, finely chop the parsley (you will need approx. 3 × 15ml tablespoonfuls), and heat the garlic oil in a large frying pan for the bacon.
    • Fry the bacon until it is crisp and scorched and remove to some kitchen paper. Crumble the bacon into a bowl or a couple of bowls and put them on the table.
    • As you serve the hot soup, sprinkle with parsley if wished.
    MAKE AHEAD TIP:
    Make the soup and liquidize. Cool, cover and keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat with the sherry, adding more stock/broth if needed. Check the seasoning before serving. Fry the bacon, cool and crumble into a sealable bag. Keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
    FREEZE AHEAD TIP:
    Make the soup as above and freeze in an airtight container for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.
    ROAST SQUASH AND SWEET POTATO SOUP WITH BUTTERMILK BLUE CHEESE SWIRL
    It may seem a bit fiddly to have a soup prepared in two parts: one in the oven; one in the pan. But I do this not only because I think it intensifies the flavour dramatically, but because it actually makes my life easier.
    The thing is this: when you roast a butternut squash, you can go ahead and liquidize it without ever having to peel it (I found this out