Quick Cassoulet

I love beans. There’s no secret there. Plus, they’re extremely good for you containing protein and fiber and minimal fat. So I love cassoulet, which is basically a French bean and sausage stew.

Don’t shoot me for describing it like that. I know there must be an authentic version out there … somewhere in some grandma’s kitchen in the south of France. I know it’s probably incredibly involved, featuring not only sausage, but perhaps also some confit of a type, and I’d bet it never contained canned beans. But let’s face it, my guess is there are as many different variations for making cassoulet as there are recipes for Italian tomato sauce (aka gravy), chili in the American southwest and yes, even Jewish chicken soup (to dill or not to dill). Heck, even Cooking Light has over a dozen variations of cassoulet alone.

Let’s also admit, that even in that grandma’s kitchen, I bet the cassoulet never came out the same way twice. Why? Because it’s peasant food and well, peasants cooked with what was on hand. No goose? Perhaps they used duck. Missing one type of sausage, perhaps they used another…

So, though I started with Cooking Light’s Quick Cassoulet, it was only a starting point. Because, well, Chris does the supermarket shopping and it’s always a bit of a crap shoot as to what he’ll come home with. No worries though, as long as you have the basic idea, this does allow for some variation so don’t get too hung up on the exact ingredients as much as the concept.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1.5lbs sausage sliced (CL used pork, lamb and duck – our supermarket isn’t so well stocked so Chris came home with turkey kielbasa and Andouille sausage, also smoked, which was fine but next time, I’d like a little more variation)
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup finely chopped carrot (we were out of carrots, so I left it out and used sweet onions to hopefully compensate)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (we had no white opened so I used red)
• 1/4 cup cognac or brandy
• 5 thyme sprigs
• 2 bay leaves
• (2 whole cloves CL called for these but I don’t like cloves so left them out)
• 1 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 3 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained – next time I might use small white beans as I think they might be better
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 4-ounces plain bread crumbs (CL used a 4 ounce piece of french bread, ground in a food processor. I didn’t have it and couldn’t be bothered, though it might be less fattening)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions