Lamb en croûte with redcurrant sauce
Teaming lamb with sage instead of mint is a clever idea for a festive feast - and you can freeze this dish for up to a month
Winter cannellini bean soup
- Preparation and cooking time
- Cook: -
- Plus freezing and defrosting times
- Easy
- Serves 6
Skip to ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 shallotsfinely chopped
- 2 garlic clovesfinely chopped
- 1 carrotfinely chopped
- 2 celerysticks, finely chopped
- 2 leeksfinely chopped
- 140g streaky baconfinely chopped
- 1.4l chicken stockor vegetable stock (Kallo is good)
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tsp chopped fresh oreganoor marjoram or ½ tsp dried
- 2x 450g cans cannellini beansdrained and rinsed
On the day
- a handful of flatleaf parsleychopped
- extra-virgin olive oil
- 6 tiny parsleysprigs
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal214
- fat10glow
- saturates3g
- carbs19g
- sugars0g
- fibre6g
- protein13g
- salt1.78g
Method
step 1
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and tip in the shallots, garlic, carrot, celery, leeks and bacon. Cook over a medium heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned.
step 2
Pour in the stock, then add the bay leaves and oregano or marjoram. Season and bring to the boil, then cover the pan and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Tip in the beans, cover again and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
step 3
Pour the soup into a freezer container and leave it to cool completely, then seal, label and freeze for up to a month.
step 4
Defrost the soup at room temperature for 3 hours, (or overnight).
step 5
Tip into a saucepan, reheat gently until bubbling, and simmer for 5 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Swirl in the chopped parsley, ladle into warm bowls and top each with a drizzle of olive oil and a parsley sprig.
