Stupid question

[shopaholics]

I'm meal planning for next month, and I was thinking of having a stew one day and a casserole another. I was thinking of using leftovers but I can't figure out if it would be better to use the casserole leftovers for a stew or the other way round?
If anyone could tell me I'd be so appreciative 🙏

Well I’m marking my place, because until now, I thought stew and casserole were the same thing!

Please someone explain the difference while I think back to all the times I’ve missold my dinner to guests.

I would say they’re basically the same thing too. Stew would be cooked on the stove top and casserole cooked in the oven, but the same ingredients. They’re both things I’d make to use up random bits of veg so I can’t imagine making one with the leftovers of the other?

I'm not certain so anyone correct me if I'm wrong but I've always thought of casserole as a tomatoey dish whilst stew is a gravy dish. Not wildly different but different enough for my partner to not notice he's essentially getting the same dish twice 😂

We never have any leftovers from stew or casserole but if we do it goes in the fridge and is heated up as it is the next day, and usually tastes better tbh.

If you mean cooking a bit pot of one and then adding to it the next day then I would say do stew first then the next day add to it/thicken the gravy to make it in to a casserole.

Hope that makes sense and helps.

I've always used the words stew and casserole interchangeably for more or less the same dish (meat and veg in a gravy type sauce, slow cooked in the oven).

Thank you @mogwaigremlin I was thinking that would be the way to do it but I couldn't figure out if I'd ruin one of the dishes 😬
I always make way too much food when I cook so I know there'll be plenty of food left over

To me a stew is made on the stove top and is generally a thinner gravy whereas casserole is cooked in the oven and has a thicker sauce/gravy.

I didn't think there was any difference tbh. Although now it's been mentioned, the fact that there is a thing called a casserole dish kind of dictates that it's cooked in the oven and I think of stew as being made in a pan. I still think the resulting dish is the same though, whether it's called stew or casserole?