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Super easy Weekight Cassoulet with Sausage, Bacon, Beans and White Wine--tons of flavor and easily serves a crowd or your family!

Weeknight Cassoulet with Sausage and Bacon

Adapted from Kim Laidlaw. I highly recommend good bread to serve with this.
Course Entree
Cuisine French
Author TheSpicedLife

Ingredients

For the beans:

  • 1 lb dried white beans
  • 1 med-large onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 T extra virgin olive oil
  • water

For the cassoulet:

  • 1 lb sliced bacon
  • 1 lb cooked smoked sausage, cut into rounds, like kielbasa; I used a smoked chicken sausage
  • 1 med-large onion, chopped
  • 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 smaller or 1 large carrot, diced
  • 16-20 oz sliced crimini mushrooms
  • 1/4 cup AP flour
  • 2 heaping T Dijon mustard
  • 1 cup white wine of choice, plus more for deglazing, I used a vinho verde
  • 2 T dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 t ground coriander
  • 1/4 t ground cloves
  • salt and black pepper to taste
  • 1-2 T white balsamic vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
  • chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions

  1. Soak the dried beans overnight.
  2. The next morning, bring the beans with the onion and garlic to a boil on the stovetop (if your slow cooker insert is cooktop safe, use that). Once they have boiled for 5 minutes, transfer either the cooktop safe pot to the slow cooker base or pour them into your slow cooker insert. Add the olive oil and enough water (if needed) to cover by 2 inches. Cook for 3-6 hours on low or 2-4 hours on high (how long they will take depends on the age of the beans), until mostly tender.
  3. Near the end of the beans' cooking time, begin the cassoulet: cook the bacon in a large, heavy skillet until crispy. Move it around so that it does not burn. Remove the bacon and drain on paper towels before crumbling and setting aside.
  4. Pour off all but a few tablespoons of the bacon grease (reserve that grease). Now add the sausage and brown it in the skillet. Remove the sausage with a slotted spoon and set aside. Once again pour off excess grease if you need to (I did not), leaving about 2 tablespoons of fat.
  5. Add the onions to the pan with a pinch of salt. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and carrot and cook until the onions are starting to brown a little, about another 5-10 minutes.
  6. Add the mushrooms with a pinch of salt and stir to incorporate. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms have begun to release their water.
  7. If at any point you need to deglaze the pan because the vegetables are sticking, do so with a splash of wine.
  8. Stir together the flour and mustard, and then whisk that into the pan. Add a little more bacon grease if the pan is too dry for the flour. Stir constantly and cook for 1 minute, until the flour is completely incorporated. Stir in the sugar, coriander and cloves, along with a few grinds of black pepper and another pinch of salt.
  9. Slowly pour in the wine, while stirring to incorporate--it should blend in nicely with the flour, much like in a roux, and should not be lumpy. When it is nicely blended, turn up the heat to bring to a boil. Let the wine briskly simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated.
  10. Taste the beans--if they are mostly cooked, add a teaspoon of salt, and then scrape the cooked mirepoix (onion, carrot, garlic) mixture into the beans. Be sure to get all the delicious flavor from the bottom of the pan--use a splash of wine if needed. Stir the sausage into the slow cooker insert as well. Also stir in 2/3 of the bacon--reserve the rest for crumbling on top as a garnish.
  11. Cook on low for an additional 3 hours, or high for 90 minutes. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the vinegar and taste for more vinegar or additional salt or pepper. Serve in bowls with crumbled bacon and chopped parsley on top. Bread to mop up the sauce is also welcomed.