Use up any cans of beans you have in the cupboard for this classic French sausage casserole. Made in a slow cooker, it’s a great batch-cook for the freezer.
credit: bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sausage-cassoulet
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 12 Toulouse-style sausages
- 200g bacon lardons
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- ½ bunch of thyme, leaves picked and roughly chopped
- 200ml white wine
- 400g can chopped tomatoes
- 200ml chicken or veg stock (fresh or 1/2 a stock cube crumbled in 200ml water)
- 400g can butter beans, drained and rinsed
- 400g can haricot beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- crusty bread, to serve (optional)
Method
- Set the slow cooker to low (ours had a 5-litre capacity).
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a high heat and brown the sausages on each side – you don’t have to cook them all the way through. Set aside on a plate.
- Put the lardons, onion and celery in the pan and cook over a medium heat for 8-10 mins until the onion is translucent and the lardons crisp. Stir in the garlic, paprika and thyme, and fry for 3 mins.
- Pour in the wine and simmer until reduced by half, around 5-10 mins.
- Tip in the chopped tomatoes, stock, both lots of beans, the sugar and vinegar. Stir until combined and bring to the boil. Pour into the slow cooker with the sausages.
- Cover and cook for 6-8 hrs. Serve with crusty bread.