Give your Onions a Little Salt Love!

Soups and stews are true winter wonders and can be made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen in portions for a quick defrost and reheat, can be easily transported as long as you have a reliable container with a dependable and secure lid and you can sling just about everything that is lurking in the fridge and looking a bit tired in there to save waste, save money and add texture, flavour and nutritional splendidness.

But… the secret to a truly delicious soup or stew is about having a little patience for the first 15 to 20 minutes! No matter which recipe you are following or whether you are just ‘doing your own thing’, it’s all about the base - that’s where the delicious flavour comes from! Briskly sauté your chopped onions in good olive or avocado oil or top-dollar butter (or a combination of the two) for just a very few minutes, add a good pinch of sea salt crystals then quickly turn the heat down to the lowest, lowest, lowest heat, put a lid on the soup/stew pot and let the onions ‘sweat’ very happily for 15 to 20 minutes without lifting the lid or stirring - this really brings the beautiful sweetness out of the onions, means they don’t ‘brown’ and gives any soup or stew an extra dimension. Same rule applies where leeks, shallots, celery, garlic, tough root vegetables or a combination of some or all of the above are involved. Once you adopt this method, you will never again have to worry about your soups and/or stews being anything other than divinely-delicious and very moreish!