For some reason a few years ago, I got
obsessed with cassoulet. Not sure why;
occasionally, I just fixate on a dish. I
read about eight recipes and then seared some sausage and chicken in the same
pot and made a soup.
Authentic, non?
Over time, this cassoulet-inspired stew has
taken on an ultra-flavorful life of its own.
There are so many flavor notes in this thing I barely know where to
start. As an added bonus, I will also
tell you that if you’ve roasted a chicken lately, the two thighs and other
remaining meat on your carcass will be a perfect amount of meat for this stew—and
since you’re already cleaning off that carcass, throw it in a pot and get
yourself some stock base too.
This stew is also chock-full of protein, which is important to me as I lift weights and muscle growth means
lots of protein intake. It’s also on the
rich side—the sausage fat gets folded back into the sweating veggies but you
can skim it easily when cold and the reheated portions get better and better. Or, if you're really kicking it in the gym, enjoy your slick of savory yum.
Cassoulet-Inspired
Stew
2 sausages, sliced in to ¼ inch rounds*
½ onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 ½ cups chicken stock
1/3 cup white wine
Bouquet garni (several springs fresh parsley, 5-6 sprigs
fresh thyme, 2 bay leaves)**
½ tsp celery seed
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 (19 oz) can white kidney beans***
1 ½ cups chopped, cooked chicken
Parmesan rind, optional
2 cups (loosely packed) rough chopped kale
Extra chopped parsley, for serving
Cook sausages in large soup pot on
medium-low heat. I didn’t specify
because almost any type of sausage would work here—I prefer bratwurst as that
sage-y stuff is my favourite. Allow some
fat to melt before the meat really gets its sear on. When cooked, remove sausage rounds from the
pot and set aside; retain rendered fat.
Place onion, garlic and carrots into the
pot and sweat for 8-10 minutes, or until they’re golden, soft, and their juices
have cleaned up most of the brown scrummies on the bottom of the pot.
Return the sausage to the pot (and any
accumulated plate juices); add the next six ingredients. Bring the pot to a gentle simmer, uncovered,
and cook for another 30 minutes, skimming occasionally. Allowing it to stay uncovered means it will
reduce just a little and thicken up.
In the last five minutes of cooking, grab
your kale and stir it into the stew.
When it’s cooked down and wilted, pull the bouquet garni but if you’ve
used parmesan rinds, leave them in until the soup’s done. It’ll just ooze salty cheese taste into the
soup indefinitely.
For serving, sprinkle on the extra
parsley. A crusty, seedy loaf goes
really well with this broth.
*Tip: To make this easier and keep your
knife less goopy, freeze sausage for approximately half an hour before slicing.
**Bouquet garni are just a bundle of
herbs. I place mine in a tea bag rather
than tying them up as it’s neater. I didn't chop the herbs into the soup to keep it a little clearer but that's definitely a fine alternative.
***You could substitute nearly any bean here but I prefer a light-colored variety for aesthetics. In the version pictured above, I'd used canned chickpeas as they were what I had on hand.
