Anne Morgan Everything for Delia Smith’s chestnut soup goes into one pan at once, from cooked, peeled chestnuts to a little celery, onion and carrot in ham or vegetable stock. It cooks slowly under a lid for 45 minutes and is then blended smooth. Crisp croutons fried with bacon and thyme go on top, and it serves 4.
She printed it among the winter soups in The Delia Collection: Soup in 2003. Years before, in her first Christmas book, a similar soup came with instructions for peeling the chestnuts by hand, a job she later admitted was not her favourite. For this one she simply uses the vacuum-packed chestnuts sold in supermarkets, already cooked and peeled.
It’s the everyday one of her two chestnut soups. The other, from Delia’s Happy Christmas, doubles the chestnuts and swaps the thyme for sage, and it’s explained in the questions below along with the best stock to use and a version without bacon.
Delia Smith’s Chestnut Soup with Bacon and Thyme Croutons
Course: SoupsCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy4
servings10
minutes45
minutes310
kcalSmooth and nutty, with crisp bacon and thyme croutons, for 4.
Ingredients
- For the soup:
200g (7oz) cooked and peeled whole chestnuts
1 stick celery, trimmed and chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and chopped
1.2 litres (2 pints) ham or vegetable stock
salt and freshly milled black pepper
- For the croutons:
110g (4oz) stale white bread, cut into small cubes
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 rasher bacon, rind removed, very finely chopped
½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
Directions
- Simmer: Put the chestnuts, celery, onion, carrot and stock in a large saucepan and season lightly with salt and pepper. Bring to simmering point, then cover and simmer very gently for 45 minutes.
- Bacon: Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the bacon gently for 5 minutes.
- Croutons: Turn the heat up to its highest, add the bread cubes and the thyme, and keep tossing them until the bread and bacon are a deep golden brown, crisp and crunchy. Tip them out on to kitchen paper to drain.
- Blend: Once the soup is ready, let it cool slightly, then purée it in a blender until smooth. Work in batches if you need to, with a bowl ready to hold each one.
- Serve: Pour it back into the pan, reheat it, season to taste and ladle into warmed bowls, with the croutons, bacon and thyme sprinkled over.
Notes
- Keep the croutons moving once the heat is high, as they colour fast and can catch.
FAQs
What is her Christmas chestnut soup?
It’s the sage version in Delia’s Happy Christmas (2009), made for 6. She uses 400g of frozen peeled chestnuts, defrosted, or vac-packed ones, with 1½ sticks of celery, a medium onion and a medium carrot, all simmered in 1 litre of vegetable stock for just 25 minutes.
The croutons change too, with 2 rashers of bacon and a tablespoon of chopped sage in place of the thyme, fried with 110g of thickly sliced stale white bread, crusts removed, in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. With twice the chestnuts in less stock, I’d expect a thicker, nuttier soup, which is my own reading.
In that book it sits among the soups and starters, next to her Fenland celery soup with Stilton and a mushroom and walnut soup, the richer Christmas version of Delia Smith’s mushroom soup.
Do I have to peel the chestnuts?
No, both versions start with chestnuts that are already cooked and peeled. This one uses the vacuum-packed kind sold in supermarkets and specialist food shops, while the Christmas one uses frozen peeled chestnuts, defrosted first, or vac-packed. Since they’re cooked already, they go straight into the pan with the vegetables.
Which stock works best?
Ham stock, if you have it. Delia suggests making it from the bone of a baked ham, though she says the soup is still excellent with vegetable stock, and her Christmas version uses vegetable stock made with Marigold bouillon.
That makes it a good use for the bone left from a Christmas ham, which is my own thought.
Why is there no cream in it?
Because the chestnuts thicken it on their own. Simmered until soft and then blended, they give the soup a smooth, full body without any cream, butter or flour, which is my own explanation.
How do I make it vegetarian?
Use vegetable stock and leave the bacon out. The soup itself has no meat once the ham stock is swapped for vegetable, which she allows, so only the croutons need changing. I’d fry the bread cubes and thyme in the hot oil on their own, which is my own swap.
Is chestnut soup healthy?
It’s light on its own. By our own sums the soup comes to about 110 calories a bowl, as chestnuts, unlike most nuts, contain very little fat.
The croutons add about 200 more, mostly from the 4 tablespoons of olive oil and the bread, bringing a full bowl to about 310.
