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We’ll start by hearing some oil and adding the onions and celery to this. You want to fry this on a low heat for about 5 minutes. Just until they start to soften.
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Now we’ll add the carrots, some bay leaves and our thyme. You can use dried if you can’t get or don’t want to use fresh.
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That will carry on frying for about 2 minutes just to release the flavour. When you’re done, tip everything into your big pot or slow cooker. Try to leave the oil if you can and hang on to that frying pan. We’re going to use it in a little bit, so don’t wash it up yet.
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You can crumble some stock cubes, using low salt varieties, or use something like low sodium soy sauce to add that richness. I’ve heard of people using coffee granules or small amounts of cocoa powder. It can be fun to experiment. But I’ll go with some low salt stock cubes and also add some ground black pepper.
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We’re going to now put the beef or mushrooms into our frying pan, browning it in batches. Once each batch is done, we add it straight to our slow cooker or pan.
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So now everything is ready to go. We just turn the heat up.
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If you want to save this and freeze it for future meals, I would suggest putting it into your containers and leaving it to cool before freezing. When you’re ready to re-heat, pop it on the hob or in the microwave and heat it up slowly. You may need to add a touch of water to help it along.
Sign off: And that’s our beef stew. Let us know in the comments if you’ve tried it out yourself or if you have any questions.
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We’ll start with chopping up the garlic, carrots, celery and leeks.
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When you’re done, pop them into your large pan.
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And then pop them into the big pot as well. Add the tomato puree, coriander and thyme leaves, you can use dried thyme as well. If you want to add a vegetable stock cube or bouillon powder, feel free to do that now. If you’re worried about salt, there are low salt alternatives. Or you can use ???.
So that’s all the ingredients. Now we just add one and a half litres of boiling water and stir. Then we can cover and leave to simmer for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables and lentils are tender.
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If you want or need to thicken the soup, we’re going to ladle out a third to a half of the soup, depending on how thick you want it. We’re going to put that into our blender and whizz it up.
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Once it’s all blended together, we just pour it back into our soup and it’s ready to serve.
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We can ladle this straight into bowls to eat right now, maybe with a bit of nice bread. Or you can put it into some containers for freezing. It freezes really well. I would recommend letting it cool before going into the freezer, just to save your freezer some work.
Sign off: And that’s our lentil and vegetable soup. Let us know in the comments if you’ve tried it out yourself or if you have any questions.
Please like the video and subscribe to our channel if you want to see more content like this. Thanks for watching.
Marinara sauce
In this video, we’re going to make a basic tomato sauce. You’ll be able to use this to make spaghetti bolognese, lasagna or a simple pasta or gnocchi bake. It’s one of those useful things to have in your freezer for when you don’t really feel like cooking.
I’ll show you how to make it in either a slow cooker or just on the hob.
The ingredients are listed below. When we priced this up, it came to between £1.50 to almost £9, depending on what you have in the house. Things like oil and herbs.
You’ll need a large saucepan with a lid or a slow cooker, a wooden spoon or something to stir with, some measuring spoons, a tin opener, a knife and a chopping board.
We’ll start by finely chopping the onion and garlic. The goal is to make this as small as you can. Don’t worry though if it isn’t as finely chopped as this. We’re going to cook this for a good long while, so it will reduce a bit.
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Now we just add those straight to our slow cooker or pan. This should not be on yet.
Next we add everything else. So the tin of chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, the herbs, sugar, balsamic vinegar and butter. And give it all a good stir.
You can add some salt or a low salt alternative now, but you don’t have to. ???
Then it’s time to let it cook. On a slow cooker, you can go with a low heat for eight hours or a high heat for four. If you’re cooking it on the hob, I’d heat it up to simmering and then turn it down and cook for at least an hour. Just come in a stir occasionally.
Feel free to come back and taste occasionally as well, that will tell you if you need to add any black pepper or other seasoning.
Once you’ve finished cooking, here’s one I made earlier, you can either use it immediately or store it for later. Either pop it into the fridge or the freezer. You can split it up into batches and use it for individual lunches, if that’s something you like to do.
I’ve boiled a bit of gnocchi here and I’m just going to stir a couple of spoons of the sauce through. A little cheese on the top and I’ve got a quick hot lunch.
Sign off: And that’s our tomato sauce. Let us know in the comments if you’ve tried it out yourself or if you have any questions.
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