2 recipes required - purleeease.... 1 great veg soup, 1 hearty casserole

[MascaraOHara]

I'd love

a decent recipe for vegetable soup

and

a recipe for a hearty winter warmer casserole

thought there was no better place to ask than here

TIA!

...anyone?...

well I always make nigellas minestrone it takes 2 hours to cook though but is delicious?

and delias pork casserole in cider vinegar sauce is scrummy

I just chuck it all in a pot and cook!!
Casserole, brown met and onions first,add all veg, carrots swede peas whatevr you have or like, few herbs garlic stock (cube will do) cover with water and cook slowly

Soup:
I like the combination of sweet potato (1 medium size), carrots (lots), onion (1 large), corgettes (1 or 2) plus herbs and seasoning. I use a couple of chicken stock cubes but veg stock would be okay too. Cook the onion, carrot and sweet potato for about 15 minutes before adding the corgette for another 5/10 minutes. Times are approx. I also cook some frozen sweetcorn in a sieve resting in the soup so that I can add it after I have used a hand blender to blitz the soup fairly smooth. That way the sweetcorn stays whole and I can pretend they are like croutons! Add a spoonful of low fat creme fraiche before serving if you want.

Simplest soup I have ever come across:
Courgette soup (for 4 people). You'll need: 1 clove garlic, 1 onions, 3 courgettes, half red chilli pepper without seeds (optional: I usually leave it out, so 2-yo ds1 will eat too), 1 litre water, stock cubes, some pieces Roquefort (or other blue cheese, have done stilton, blue danish, and cambozola).`Chop onions, garlic and cut chilli pepper into small rings. Fry on low heat in some olive oil. Cut courgettes lengthwise in halves and then into slices. Add this to the onion mixture and fry for additional 10 minutes. Add stock. Leave to simmer on low heat for approx. 20 minutes. Puree ingredients in blender. Serve in bowl sprinkled with crumbs of roquefort (or you can add cheese directly to soup before blending, if you want). Takes about 20 minutes to make. Tastes very creamy, although there's no cream in it.

I love beef stew in beer with lots of grated nutmeg

Use guiness or any dark ale, and add 1-2 teaspoons of grated nutmeg when browning the meat.
Then, veg + beer

delicious super easy pea soup. chop 1 no small/medium onion, gently fry in saucepan (in olive oil and a bit of butter). chop bacon and add to onion (unless you are a veggie, in which case, omit!). chop potato into cubes, add to onion and bacon. make stock (either veg from cube or fresh chicken stock). add 1 large bag frozen peas/petit pois after the potatoes have cooked for a while, get it all coated in oil/butter, then add stock (about a pint? you judge...). simmer until potato is cooked (try not to simmer peas for too long, much nicer looking if peas stay green and don't go grey/khaki). add large handful chopped fresh mint if you have it. blend it in mixer or with hand blender. i prefer it a little bit chunky and not too smooth, but to your taste. add salt and pepper to taste. serve with a drizzle of olive oil on top. Add more stock if it's too thick. Delicious! Nigella also adds a parmesan cheese rind in during the cooking process.... takes about 15 minutes, freezes well.