During winter, nothing beats a delicious stew to warm you up. Packed full of vegetables, elevated with meat and perfectly paired with some crusty bread or creamy mashed potatoes, the whole family is sure to enjoy this tasty dish.

This Winter Solstice Stew packs in masses of flavour with very little effort. It also happens to be an excellent way of using up a bottle of pre-mixed mulled wine if you have some stashed away from Christmas parties past.

This recipe is from ‘Rustle Up: one-paragraph recipes for flavour without fuss’ by Rhiannon Batten & Laura Rowe (Pavilion Books). Image credit: Claire Winfield.

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Winter Solstice Stew Recipe

Serves: 4 | Time: 2hrs 15mins

Ingredients:

• 75ml Bottle Mulled Wine
• 1 tbsp Oil
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 500g Diced Braising Steak
• 500ml Beef Stock
• 2 tbsp Seasoned Plain Flour
• 1 Onion
• 2 Carrots
• 2 Celery Sticks
• 2 Bay Leaves
• Chopped Herbs

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 140°C fan/160°C/325°F/gas mark 3.
2. In a small pan, bring 75ml bottled mulled wine to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp oil in a heavy-bottomed, lidded pan.
4. Coat 500g diced braising steak in 2 tbsp seasoned plain flour and brown in batches in the hot oil. Scoop out onto a plate.
5. Add 2 tbsp olive oil to the same pan and, over a medium heat, fry 1 finely sliced onion, 2 sliced carrots, 2 sliced celery sticks and 2 bay leaves, stirring regularly, for around 10 minutes. If the base of the pan is sticking, use 2 tbsp of the mulled wine to deglaze.
6. Return the beef and any of its juices to the pan, along with the reduced mulled wine and 500ml beef stock.
7. Bring to the boil, then cover and transfer to the oven for 90 minutes–2 hours or until the meat starts to fall apart.
8. Season, sprinkle with chopped herbs and serve with mashed potatoes or crusty bread.