I am still enjoying last January's new gadget, my soup maker, and the soup season is most definitely upon us - the combination of miserable wet weather and plenty of leftovers from the festivities.
All the turkey and stuffing had gone and with visitors coming I decided to make a nice, warming beef stew, with cubed braising steak and a miscellany of root veg - onion, carrot, swede, leek, parsnip, celery, mushrooms and half a green pepper - all leftover from the Christmas shop.
I made the stew in my Instant Pot using it as a slow cooker and when it was done there was a huge amount of liquid. I removed and reserved the excess and thickened the stew with flour. It was very tasty and went down well with some mash and greens.
There was just a little stew left over, not enough for a whole meal, so I made it into soup, adding the reserved broth. Waste not want not. I simply put the stew in with a few more veg and a whole punnet of mushrooms. Delicious!
Ingredients
about a pint of leftover beef stew
a whole punnet of chestnut mushrooms
2 carrots
1 leek
1 large potato
1 vegetable stock pot
about a pint of beef broth (the reserved liquid from the stew before thickening) - or use extra water and a beef stock pot or cube.
Method
Put the leftover stew into the soup maker. Wash or peel and roughly chop enough of the veg to fill to the bottom line.
Add the stock pot, broth and enough water to fill to the top line and cook on the smooth setting.
It's definitely soup season and this soup would be most welcome today. I really like the idea of adding in those mushrooms. You're making me wish I had more leftovers. But leftover bits of a stew are definitely a cook's treat - I had leftover Italian lamb stew with pasta tonight, but I didn't have any extra mushrooms to add.
ReplyDelete