To think that veg that has 'gone a bit soft' is the POINT of stews?

[nomorequotes]

We are properly skint at the moment so though the children are getting their 5 a day served to them even if they don't always eat it we are upkeeping the age-old British tradition of making a stew/roast and involving as many veggies as we can. DH is making the stew today and has refused to add a handful of cherry tomatoes that 'are a little bit soft' and one or two of which the skin has separated a bit. I think this is absurd! They are fine to go in a stew if not go in a salad. He is now complaining about a couple of courgettes I found in the fridge, probably a week old because they too are 'a bit soft'

Surely all of this adds to our veg for the day and should be used up!

I thought the point of stews was to use up all those bits n pieces you had lying around? If we were having a roast I would have cut it all up and roasted it too!

Please tell me he is BU and I am right!

You are very right!!!

Look, tell your DH that anything and everything can go in a stew. They only don't go in if they have visible a mould culture on them. I have been known to cut bits of mould off before throwing them into a stew but don't tell your husband that.

well yes i would have thought so.. just like bread and butter pudding is for using up stale bread isn't it?

I won't let the husband see how or what I do when cooking.. because if he thinks somethings a bit off he'll be a swine when it comes eating it.

Well, there is a difference between veg that has gone soft through cooking and veg that is decomposing into softness....but if the veg is just a bit wilted YANBU

YANBU. Waste not want not.

YANBU. I would have thrown them in the stew too. Your DH is clearly bonkers .

Yup your dh is bonkers!

I've just gone and put the veg in the stew...

if he asks I will tell him Mumsnet told me too.

So long as the veg don't have mould on, or have turned to liquid they are fair game.

None of the veg had mould on it. The tomatoes were only bought on Thursday for goodness sake! He is just being ridiculous he has just said he is worried we have 'overfilled' the stew with veg.

If he is making it leave him alone to do it.

If it annoys you so much you do ALL the cooking.

I do all the cooking on the weekdays and half the cooking (lunch) on the weekends. I am happy to make a stew but he prefers to do it. Unfortunately he doesn't see vegetables in the same way I do so will sometimes serve a roast dinner with no boiled green veg etc.

So yes, I will fight him!

The point of a stew is to cook a) cheap cuts of meat that take ages to get tender and b) veg that is a bit soft. It's why they are a traditionally winter dish - to use root veg that has been stored. Tell him he needs to quit whinging.

You are right, or you could make courgettes fritters or even muffins yum

And it all goes into the stock pot for soup too- soggy veg is what soup was invented for

I might put the tomatoes in but not the courgettes.

Courgettes don't work in a stew. It is not a British tradition. It's not any kind of tradition.

You're the kind of person who puts sweetcorn into ragu and calls it 5-a-day, aren't you?

You're the kind of person who puts sweetcorn into ragu and calls it 5-a-day, aren't you?

I'm the sort of person who works bloody hard to get 5 fruits and veggies into my children everyday often at the expense of having any fruit or veg myself.

I am the sort of person who thinks that letting good vegetables rot away because they are 'a bit soft' is sacrilege.

If that makes me an awful person, so be-it.

What's wrong with corgettes in stew?!

I think limitedperiodonly was just having a wee joke.

I missed the funny bit of that joke I have to say. What the hell is wrong with putting sweetcorn in a Ragu?

I would have thought any courgette fresh or old would be a bit slimy in a stew. Stews are more root vegetables

I missed the funny in Limiteds "joke too. It was bitchy sounding not funny at all.

OP is on extreme budget and I know what that is....a slight slime to your stew is tough if it means there are vitamins in it.