White Bean & Andouille Sausage Stew from the Crock Pot

So, to get it out of the way (and, okay, because I'm really happy about it) I would like to share with you all that I've finished my master's degree! I am a Master of Science! What a world. And, since the next big steps for me are moving back to MA to be with Brady in two weeks and starting the hunt for my first real job in the New Year, for the sake of my short-term sanity I've chosen to focus on the Holidays with my family and on all the delicious things I can cook before that "What next?" moment comes. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I was a kid, I didn't like a lot of food. I know how unlikely that now seems, but for a while there around ages 8-10, one of the only things my Mom could make that I would always eat happily was her soup made with kale, sausage (maybe kielbasa?), and other delicious things that I have since forgotten. In a sense, I think the details of the recipe are less important than how gleeful I felt when I ate it, and how she enjoyed making something that I loved so much.

This recipe is a variation on a theme: I added white beans and tomatoes and swapped the kale for other veggies, but the substantial texture and subtle spiciness of the sausage remains. Of course, you could easily add chopped kale or collard greens in the last 30 minutes or so of cooking, but I am myself just coming off a bit of a kale binge (is that even a thing?) so I decided to go a slightly different route.

It is SUPER HARD to photograph steamy food.

Ingredients:
About 1/4 lb. Andouille (or other smoked) sausage links, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise
1/4 cup dry white beans, sorted, rinsed and soaked overnight, or 1 15 oz. can prepared white beans
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes, with or without green chiles
1 (above) can of water (if you are using dry beans, add another 1/2 can)
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, smashed
1 tablespoon mixed dry Italian herbs
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 dried chili pepper (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste


[Written for a 2 qt. crock pot]


Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in crock pot and cook on "low" for about 4-6 hours if you used prepared beans (more like 8-10 if you're using dry-soaked beans), or on "high" for about 4 (or more like 6 if, you guessed it, you're using dry beans), or some combination of high and low until beans and veggies are tender. The exact time will depend on your machine.
2. If necessary, remove the lid for the final hour or so of cooking to reduce liquids.
3. Remove bay leaf and serve with butter and a good crusty bread. (If you're looking for a super no-knead, healthy, rustic bread recipe to make with your soup, check this out).

The great thing about smoked sausage (besides the fact that it is sausage, and that it is smoked) is that since its fully cooked, you just need to be sure it is well-heated and it's ready to go. But better still, when you slow cook smoked sausage like this, it lends such great flavor to your soup without a ton of different seasonings. Win-win. As a different twist, you could use chorizo, the "with green chiles" tomato option, serve topped with fresh cilantro and some shredded cheese, and if you happen to have some corn chips on hand, you've made grown-up taco soup.

Maybe it is my imagination, but it seems to me that while I've been living alone (and especially now that it is winter) my posts have been mainly about easy, comforting food. In so doing, I hope I haven't strayed too far from the other part of my mission, of cooking and writing about healthy food. But, GK is also about my life, which heaven knows is a moving target. It's sort of crazy to me that I've been sharing my kitchen exploits with you all for the majority of my life as a graduate student. I guess the moral of the story is, life is short. Way too short not to eat well.

Crocktober: Vegan Sweet Potato and Pinto Bean Chili

After an unexpectedly long shift at my retail job this evening, I'm feeling a little short on poetic banter, but that doesn't mean that this recipe isn't a good one. The spice factor is totally up to you, but personally I'm a bit heavy-handed with them, so my three teaspoons of chili powder were probably more like "heaping teaspoons." Do whatever makes you happy.

Ingredients:

1 cup dry pinto beans (2 1/2 cups prepared)

1 large sweet potato or yam, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch-ish cubed 

1 cup water

1/2 onion, chopped

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with jalapenos

2 tsp orange or tangerine zest

3 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Pinch ground allspice (optional)

Fresh cilantro leaves, torn, for serving 

Salt and pepper, to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp seasoned salt)

Cooking spray

Directions:

1. If you're using dry beans, sort, rinse, and soak them in the refrigerator overnight (or for up to 24 hours) in plenty of water. Change the water at least twice in this time. If you are using canned or pre-cooked beans, just skip this step and rinse them well just before you add them to the crock.

2. Combine everything but the cilantro in a sprayed crock, and cook on low for 7-9 hours or high for 4-5. Serve with some fresh cilantro on top.

Easy peasy. I don't have a zester (or a grater, for that matter) so I used a vegetable peeler to peel off just the outer skin of my tangerine (no white stuff!) and minced it, which I think worked just fine.

 The only significant thing I would change about this is to alter the bean-to-potato ratio by adding another sweet potato. In my 2 qt machine another sweet potato wouldn't have fit, but in a larger crock it would. As a technical thing, I might add the sweet potatoes a couple of hours into the cooking time, in the future. Even with dry beans that had been soaking for about 20 hours, the sweet potato was done well before the beans were. I also think this would be yummy with butternut squash instead of the sweet potato.

If you're not bound to the "vegan" thing, this would be yummy with some grated cheese on top.

Quote of the Day: Said Aristotle unto Plato, "Have another sweet potato?,"Said Plato unto Aristotle, "Thank you, I prefer the bottle." ~ Owen Wister (1860-1938), American novelist

Crocktober: Idiot-Proof Crock Pot Beef Stew

A hot bowl of stew is one of the things I look forward to the most about cold weather. And I hope I'm not the only one - I've got a post about sweet potato and pinto bean chili coming up at the end of the week, so stay tuned for that.

 I know that this looks like a long list of ingredients, but most of these things are seasonings or staples that you probably have sitting in a cabinet already. Obviously this logic is flawed, but I always consider these things freebies. And anyway, if you asked 50 different people what they put in their beef stew, they would probably all give you a different combination of ingredients, so it's totally up to you.

Ingredients:

3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced

3/4 lb. stew beef, cut into 1-inch-ish cubes

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

1 14.5 oz can beef broth or stock, or water

1/2 onion, diced (I would have used a whole one but realized that it probably wouldn't fit)

1 medium-sized potato, chopped

1 clove garlic, smashed

1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp dry Italian herbs, or dry oregano

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp paprika

Pinch ground allspice or ground clove

A couple teaspoons of flour, or 1 tsp of cornstarch

Salt (to your taste)

10 3/4 oz can reduced sodium condensed cream of mushroom soup (optional; you could also use another flavor, like cream of tomato)

Directions:

1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, paprika, allspice, salt, and pepper. Add beef and toss to coat.

2. In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown beef on the outside and drain off any excess fat.

3. In your sprayed crock pot combine beef, broth, onions, carrots, tomatoes, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, dry herbs and potato. Cook on low for about 8-10 hours, or high for about 4-5, or until your veggies are tender.
Note: If you want to, add a 10 3/4 oz can of condensed cream of mushroom soup about 20 minutes before serving. This is totally optional, but I would recommend it if you like a creamier stew broth. I added half a can that I needed to use up, and I recommend it.

I used "extra lean" stew beef, whatever that means, but you could use any cut of beef that you feel like, cut into pieces. Obviously you wouldn't want to use an expensive cut since it will be cooking all day. And for crock pots, cheap cuts are just fine. It'll still come out juicy and yummy. I used carrot and potato, but you could also use celery.

 Normally I am not a big fan of "fat free" this and that, mainly because I always wonder what they put in there instead of fat, but I'll be real. Fat free broth was on sale this week, so that's what I used, and though I can't really crunch the numbers, between the "extra lean" beef, veggies, and low-sodium-fat-free beef broth, I have to think that there are much less healthy beef stews out there. Most recipes that I've read also call for higher beef-to-veggie ratio.


This stew is incredibly easy, and after 9 hours, it was REALLY yummy. I think that little bit of the cream of mushroom soup went a long way toward giving the broth more body and substance. And now I have beef stew for days. Maybe a lot of days. Fine with me. My only regret is that all of my bread-baking accoutrement are in another state. If you're the baking type, this is a golden opportunity.


Quote of the Day: "Talk of joy: there may be things better than beef stew and baked potatoes and home-made bread --- there may be."  ~ David Grayson, "Adventures in Contentment" (1907)

Crock Pot Southwestern Three-Bean Stew with Delicious Toppings

It's been said a million times before, but I'll say it again for good measure: Slow cookers are are a busy person's best friend. With a teeny bit of planning and an idea or two, you can have dinner hot and ready for you when you come in the door at night. Though the charming Stephanie O'Dea (better known as the Crock Pot Lady of Crockpot 365) has found a way to cook nearly anything you can think of in her slow cookers, and I do love her recipes, I still think there are a few things that are especially good when cooked all day long, and both beans and stews are on this list.

This stew has pinto beans, chickpeas and 2 types of lentils, but black beans, navy beans, black eyed peas or almost any other bean would also be delicious.

This seems like a ton of ingredients, but if you keep yourself stocked in spices, the odds are pretty good that you will have just about everything on hand. Also keep in mind that you can buy "bean soup mixes" of assorted beans, so my measurements on the bean front might be totally irrelevant. All the better (and easier) for you! So this is totally open to adaptation. I also ended up adding some red pepper flakes at the very end because I was afraid of throwing in too much cayenne earlier in the day. And there's always Sriracha!

For this recipe you will need a 2 or 3 qt crock pot, and some understanding of how it cooks. Some machines will need slightly more or less liquid for a similar effect based on temperature and the fit of the lid, but I would say as long as you've used yours a few times, you should have a good sense of this. This recipe seems to make about 3 servings.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup dry chickpeas

1/4 cup dry pinto beans

1/4 cup brown lentils

1/4 cup red lentils

1 medium red potato, cubed-ish

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp taco seasoning, or 1/4 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt, seasoned or regular

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp paprika

1 envelope Saizon seasoning, cilantro and anchiote, made by Goya

1 clove garlic, smashed

1 jalapeno, diced and seeded

1 1/2 cups water or vegetable broth (subject to the behavior of your machine)

Cheese for topping (optional, but I used Monterrey jack)

1 green onion, thinly sliced

Fresh cilantro, to taste, torn

Tortilla chips (optional)

Directions:

1. The Day Before: Rinse, and soak beans in refrigerator, allowing plenty of room for them to expand (about 30% more space) and covering with at least two inches of water. Soak for 12-24 hours, changing the water at least twice in this period.

2. Place beans, spices, jalapeno, potato, garlic, and water or broth in the crock pot, and cook on "low" for about 9 hours. 

3. When beans are tender, serve and top with green onion, cheese and cilantro. Bonus points if you also serve tortilla chips for scooping.

The whole point of the crock pot is that you don't have to be home to check on it, but if you are, checking once in the afternoon will give you a better sense of how long it will really take. You can bump it up to "high" for a brief period if you need to, since most machines estimate that 1 hour on high is about equivalent to 2 1/2 hours on low. Handy! Though I don't recommend cooking it on "high" the whole time, since everything will get a bit mushy.

My verdict on this is "Good," but to me not great, since I think it could have used a bit more spice, but this is easily remedied. Use your favorite spices or try new ones, but if you ask me, the cheese and cilantro are crucial. Try this soup with some sliced avocado on top. Yum!

Quote of the Day: Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top. ~ Edward Abbey