Easy tasty meal

I have made this meal several times recently, and it is an extremely easy and tasty family meal. It has chorizo in it which imparts a rich punchy flavour but if you want to make it vegetarian meal, you can omit it. This makes enough for about six servings and it freezes well so it makes a quick meal if you are short of time. There are a few ingredients to get but they are reasonably cheap and will make a large quantity. If you serve it with bread, it will eke it out a bit more.

Ingredients

1 red onion, chopped
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
1 tin of sweet corn
1 tin butterbeans
1 tin of kidney beans
1 small garlic clove
1 tin of plum or chopped tomatoes
500ml vegetable stock
About 100g cooking chorizo, chopped
Small tub of sour cream
1 avocado
Small bunch of coriander, chopped
Small bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 bay leaf
A couple of sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
Extra virgin olive oil

Heat a large pan to a high heat and add a little olive oil. Fry the chorizo until starting to go golden, then empty onto a plate and set to one side. Lower the heat to medium then add the onion, celery, carrot, bay leaf and thyme leaves to the pan and cook for a few minutes until softened. Add the garlic and fry for a few more minutes. Then add the chorizo back into the pan and add the drained beans, sweet corn, vegetable stock and tomatoes. Simmer for about 30 minutes until you have a reduced, slightly thickened rich stew. Taste to see if you need to add any more seasoning. Stir in the chopped parsley and coriander and heap into bowls. Top with a dollop of sour cream, a few pieces of chopped avocado and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle the top with a little pepper and sea salt flakes if you have them and serve with crusty bread.

Butter bean soup with smoked pancetta

I can never quite decide whether I like soup. If I'm ever in a restaurant and there is soup for starters on the menu, I never order it as I tend to think soup is rather boring. Don't get me wrong, I have had some really nice soups and I have actually decided to do soup next week for an evening meal so I don't know why I feel that way about it. It is generally a cheap quick and healthy meal, although I do tend to have a slab of bread with it, so it is ideal for a mid-week meal. Despite my indifference to soup I quite like this one.

I apologise for not giving quantities here as I never bothered to measure the ingredients and employed a slap-dash approach as usual.

Simply soak some butter beans overnight, then rinse and drain them and put into a saucepan with a couple of bay leaves, a sprig of thyme, an onion peeled and halved, pepper, a couple of garlic cloves and a potato and cover with water. Boil the beans until tender. Whilst the beans are cooking, cut pancetta into slices and fry until golden. Once the beans are cooked, remove the bay leaves and thyme and blend the rest of the ingredients (with the cooking water), seasoning with salt and a little more pepper if required. If the soup is too thick add a little water and if you want to be more indulgent add a drizzle of cream. Serve the soup in warm bowls topped with the bacon and drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and eat with crusty bread.