Soups and stews

With the nip in the air, we've set about making our favourite dishes that warm us up.  Today I have prepared a slow cooked beef casserole.  I picked some rosemary, thyme and bayleaves to add flavour.  I'm going to make some dumplings to go with it.  The dish is great for reheating later, and once this is cooked, it'll be left overnight so the flavours can develop.  To help thicken the dish without too much flour, I've very finely diced some of the vegetables so they will break down while cooking.  I've also added about 100g of red lentils. 

We also prepared a carrot and coriander soup last night.  This was so easy, just take a bag of carrots and place in a saucepan, cover with water and add some vegetable stock (powder or cubes).  While simmering away, finely dice a couple of small onions and garlic then gently fry in a little olive oil.  Put everything into a blender, test for seasoning - adding salt/pepper to taste, then add some fresh coriander.  Add the coriander bit by bit, tasting as you go along.  Then simply blend everything together.  Wonderful with a chunk of bread.  Or even better still, we have recently started buying the half baked baguettes, if you like hot, crispy bread.