For many folks, November can be a dreary month. The gray skies darken early as the days grow shorter, the wind blows cruelly, and the sun reflects little off the drab-brown landscape. Dispositions are often cranky, as we are feeling hungry, tired and out of sorts.
In our family, this is the perfect time for a hearty, healthy and heart-warming good bowl of stew!
After roasted meat, stew is the oldest cooked food on earth, first prepared using the shells of turtles. Stew was a common food for the Vikings and our European ancestors throughout the Middle East. Stew was carried to the New World, and travelled across the Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean.
“In Maine,” Marjorie Standish writes in her book Cooking Down East, “we consider a soup kettle a necessary part of our kitchen equipment. Just as important are recipes that go into chowder kettles.” While the heavy black, cast-iron pots that were cooked on the back of the wood stove are no longer prevalent, colorful cast enamel pots in bright blue, red, yellow, green and orange are perfect for preparing a good nourishing stew.
The recipe for White Bean and Sausage Stew is a thick, unsophisticated soup full of aromatic vegetables. The recipe is merely just a guide, and allows for plenty of creativity by the cook. Dried navy beans are first boiled and then soaked for an hour, while root vegetables like carrots, onion, garlic, fennel, turnips or celeriac and pearl barley are sautéed in fat and then simmered in a flavorful stock with plenty of herbs and the beans until just tender. The stew is finished with chopped greens and sliced sausage and served up with a topping of grated cheese.
This recipe yields 12 generous servings or more, enough for several meals and the freezer. Although this stew takes about 3 hours to prepare, it is quite economical in ingredient cost and time, averaging about 15 minutes per portion.
When the weather is dreadful and temperaments are short, the palate needs comfort or stimulus – a gentle restorative. White Bean and Sausage Stew soothes the spirit and restores the soul.
White Bean and Sausage Stew
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups dry navy beans*
- 2 tbsp olive oil or bacon fat
- 1 large onion chopped (about one cup)
- 2 garlic cloves chopped
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 1/4 cup pearl barley
- 2 carrots sliced (about 1 cup)
- 2 celery stalks sliced (about 1 cup)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp marjoram or oregano
- dash cayenne pepper generous
- 1 tsp ground pepper
- 1 - 2 tsp Maine sea salt to taste
- 1 14 oz can of tomatoes chopped or stewed
- 8 oz chopped swiss chard or kale or 1 10 oz package frozen spinach
- 12 oz Kielbasa or Andouille sausage sliced into rings
Instructions
- Assemble ingredients and tools
- Place the dry beans in a heavy soup pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer for 2 – 3 minutes. Remove the pot from heat, cover, and let the beans stand for 1 hour. Drain the beans in a colander, discard the water, and set the beans aside.
- While the beans are soaking, chop the onion and garlic. Slice the carrots and the celery. Set aside. Chop the greens and set aside.
- Slice the sausage and set aside.
- Using the same soup pot, heat the fat and add the chopped onion and garlic. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft. If needed, add a bit of the stock to keep the onion from sticking. Add the remaining stock to the pot.
- Return the beans to the pot. Add the barley, carrots, celery, bay leaves, marjoram, basil, thyme, cayenne pepper and black pepper. Bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 1½ hours or more, until the beans are just tender.
- Remove the pot from the heat and discard the bay leaves. Add the sliced sausage, chopped greens, and canned tomatoes. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the greens are tender, about 10 minutes.
- Taste the soup, and season to taste with Maine sea salt and more pepper if needed. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on the top. Makes 12 servings.
