The best casserole dishes for delicious soups, stews, and pot roasts

The best casserole dishes for delicious soups, stews, and pot roasts

This casserole dish has a 29cm diameter, and an overall capacity of 4.7l. Weighing 5.7kg (so lighter than the Staub), it's large enough for a leg of lamb, and narrow enough for the meat to be encased in trimmings. 

Naturally, it looks amazing. Le Creuset is the Instagram-friendly, rustic-yet-achingly-cool cookware brand that you want on your kitchen worktop when people come round to your house. It's a status symbol to be proud of, but I would say it's the home cook's choice, as opposed to the chef's choice. 

I tried the "Marine" hue, but there are an array of colours available, including Coastal, Volcanic Orange, Cerise, Almond and Satin Black. The two-tone look is undeniably attractive, and there's no doubt that it's hard-wearing and an excellent example of an enamel-coated cast iron dish (like the Staub, it's made with molten cast iron fired with high temperatures in a 'Creuset' – French for cauldron). The products are made in the same foundry in northern France where the brand was born in 1925, and they have an strong reputation for quality control.

The Le Creuset Signature cast iron casserole is certainly versatile: it can be used on ceramic hobs, induction hobs, electric hobs, radiant rings, in the oven and even in