Cassoulet-Style Bean Stew Recipe
Cassoulet is a rich and filling, slow-cooked bean and meat stew from the southwest of France.
In my take on the classic, cooking time is reduced by using tinned instead of dried beans. But with sausages, bacon, duck legs, vegetables, garlic, and herbs, it’s still packed with flavour.
Add more stock to make a soup-like version or, as I do, serve as a thick stew with greens plus potatoes on the side.
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WHAT IS CASSOULET?
Just like marmite, tagine, and paella, Cassoulet takes its name from the special pot it was originally cooked in, a cassole. But don’t worry, an ordinary casserole dish with a lid will do for my recipe.
According to Larousse Gastronomique (often regarded as the classic culinary reference book), it was first made in the Languedoc region of southwest France. It’s described as a dish of beans and pork with a garnish of meats that varies from region to region. Some areas include goose or duck, others sausages, mutton, or partridge in season.
In French Country Cooking (Penguin, 1960), Elizabeth David tells us that Cassoulet started out as a ‘humble peasant dish’ that ‘through the years has been raised… to one of the glories of French cooking.’
The recipe in Floyd on France includes belly pork, preserved goose or duck, fresh and smoked sausages. He describes Cassoulet as ‘one of the great country dishes of France – rich, filling and delicious, and fatty.’
While some people think there are hard and fast rules about what should go into Cassoulet and how it’s made, I take as my inspiration the idea that it’s an adaptable, homely peasant dish. But I’m hedging my bets. To fend off any purists I’ve called my recipe Cassoulet-Style Bean Stew!
One thing you won’t find in my version is the breadcrumb crust called for by many recipes. I’ve made Cassoulet with and without and prefer the latter. It’s already a substantial dish and, for my taste, the crumbs absorb too much of the meaty, garlicky, herby gravy that I want to spoon up with the beans and meat.
CASSOULET-STYLE BEAN STEW
Most recipes will also tell you that haricot beans are necessary for Cassoulet. But I’ve also read that haricot were introduced to France, via Spain, long after the dish was first cooked. So I have no qualms about using cannellini beans instead. I think these have a better flavour and creamier texture although you can use whichever you prefer.
One of the reasons my recipe is so much quicker than traditional ones is because I used tinned rather than dried beans. This cuts down the total cooking time to around an hour and a half. And that includes the initial browning of meat and vegetables. Allow roughly 20 minutes prep and my version can be done in under two hours.
One of the things that prompted me to make this particular Cassoulet was the gift of some fantastic local sausages from Bernard’s Farm. Made from woodland roaming pigs, they had a good porky flavour and great meaty texture. Adding to the pork quotient was my favourite bacon for cooking: herby smoked pancetta from The Port of Lancaster Smokehouse. Streaky bacon is fine if you don’t have pancetta.
As we’ve seen, Cassoulet often includes duck or goose. This is usually preserved or confit i.e., slow cooked in fat then covered in more fat to preserve it. While you can make this yourself or even buy it, it doesn’t come cheap. In any case, I had a couple of duck legs that had been languishing at the bottom of the freezer for a while, so decided to use those.
I slow-roasted them earlier in the day and left in the fridge until needed. If you don’t have or don’t like duck, then cooked chicken legs can be substituted.
EASY CASSOULET
My Cassoulet-Style Bean Stew is very simple to make. You’ll find complete ingredients and instructions in the recipe card here: Jump to Recipe. But if you want more tips and step-by-step images, read on.
The first step is to brown the pancetta, sausages, and vegetables. To do this, I use some of the fat I saved from roasting the duck legs. You do keep the fat from roasted meats, don’t you? Other fats can be used e.g. pork, chicken, goose, beef. If you don’t have any of those then I recommend olive oil.
Brown the pancetta on its own, take out of the pot, then brown the sausages in the same fat. Set both meats aside while you do the next stage.
Into the now very flavoursome fat goes chopped veg. You’ll need 1 large onion, 2 medium carrots, 2 celery stalks, and a whole head of garlic that turns lovely and mellow during the cooking. After 10 – 15 minutes they should be starting to soften and brown. Make sure you scrape up any tasty, crusty bits from the bottom of the pot.
Next, we add seasonings plus a little tomato puree. I used 2 teaspoons in total of dried thyme, rosemary, oregano, and rosemary, plus two bay leaves. It’s fine to use fresh herbs instead if you have them. Tie the sprigs together with string and pop into the pot. Many Cassoulet recipes include ground or whole cloves. If you like the taste, then add a large pinch or four whole cloves.
Now add the drained beans and return the browned pancetta to the dish along with the browned sausages. Give it all a good stir.
Nestle the cooked duck legs among all the other good things then we’re ready to add the stock and get the dish in the oven.
SOUP OR STEW?
I recommend a light chicken stock, either homemade or from cubes. If using cubes, don’t buy very salty ones and make up the stock to no more than half strength. The liquid is going to reduce during cooking, so you don’t want it overly salty or strong to start with.
How much stock you should add depends on the result you’re after. I most often prefer a thick, stew-like Cassoulet so start by adding 750 ml of stock to the pot. If you’d like it soupier, then a litre of stock should be about right. In any case, you can always add more stock later.
Once you’ve added the stock, bring the pot up to a boil on top of the stove. Now transfer to your preheated oven, with the lid on. Because the beans and duck legs are already cooked, 45 minutes is enough to finish cooking the sausages and vegetables, reheat the duck, and meld those lovely flavours.
After 45 minutes, I take the lid off and pop it back in for 15 minutes. This reduces the liquid more and intensifies the dish. But, again, if you want a soupier result then you can do this bit with the lid still on. You can also add more stock at this stage if you like.
On the other hand, for a really thick Cassoulet you could turn up the oven temperature and cook for longer.
Interesting fact: stirring in any crust that forms, cooking again, then repeating this process several times is one way that afficionados create a topping without breadcrumbs.
SERVING CASSOULET
To eat Cassoulet as a soup, halve the duck legs and divide them plus the sausages between bowls. Add a good portion of the vegetables, beans, and liquor. Some good bread to mop up the herby, garlicky, meat sauce would be good.
But I love it thick like a stew or casserole, served over potatoes, with extra vegetables on the side. Here I made buttery mashed potatoes and sauteed white cabbage in more of the saved duck fat.
Being particularly hungry, my partner and I ate a whole duck leg plus a fat sausage each in one sitting! But I left more of the beans, plus another sausage each for another, smaller but still substantial, meal another day.
If you have leftovers, or just want to make it in advance, Cassoulet will be fine in the fridge for 2 – 3 days. Or you can freeze is once cold.
RICH, FILLING & DELICIOUS
For lovers of robust flavours, who aren’t afraid of a little fat, I think Cassoulet-Style Bean Stew is a great dish. To repeat the words of Keith Floyd, it’s ‘rich, filling, and delicious.’
In my take on a French classic, you don’t need all those hours of soaking and cooking dried beans. But with sausages, bacon, duck legs, garlic, vegetables, and herbs, it’s still packed with wonderful flavour.
If you’ve made this recipe, I’d love to know what you thought. Do please leave a comment and rating.
Cassoulet-Style Bean Stew
This take on a rich bean and meat French stew uses tinned instead of dried beans to reduce the cooking time. But with sausages, bacon, duck legs, vegetables, garlic, and herbs, it's still packed with fantastic flavour.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp fat e.g. duck, chicken, goose, pork, beef or olive oil
- 150 g pancetta or streaky bacon roughly chopped
- 500 g pork sausages
- 1 large onion roughly chopped
- 2 medium carrots roughly chopped
- 2 stalks celery finely chopped
- 1 head garlic thinly sliced or finely chopped
- salt and black pepper
- 2 rounded tsp mixed dried herbs (e.g. thyme, rosemary, oregano, marjoram, sage) or sprigs of fresh herbs tied together
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 large pinch ground or 4 whole cloves optional
- 1 rounded tbsp tomato puree
- 2 tins haricot or cannellini beans, drained total drained weight approx. 450 g
- 2 confit or roasted duck legs cooked chicken legs can be substituted
- 750-1000 ml light chicken stock see Instructions
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 170° C / 150° Fan / Gas 3
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Put the fat in a large casserole dish (it will need a lid later) and place over medium heat on top of the stove.
Add the pancetta or bacon and cook briskly until the fat runs and the meat is turning crispy. Remove to a plate, leaving the fat behind.
Put the sausages in the pan and brown all over. Remove and put aside with the pancetta or bacon.
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Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the prepared onion, carrot, celery, and garlic to the pan and season with pepper and a pinch of salt.
Cook, stirring often and scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot, until the vegetables are starting to soften and brown (10-15 min)
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Stir in the herbs, bay leaves, cloves if using, tomato puree, and drained beans.
Stir in the browned pancetta or bacon plus the sausages.
Nestle the duck legs among the rest of the ingredients.
Pour over 750ml of the stock or enough to almost cover the meat and vegetables (you can add up to 1000ml if you prefer a soupier rather than stew-like cassoulet) and season with more pepper and a little salt. Stir lightly just to make sure nothing's sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Put the lid on the casserole dish, bring up to a boil then take off the heat.
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Transfer the dish to the preheated oven and cook for 45 minutes.
Remove the lid and cook for a further 15 minutes.
* For a soup-like cassoulet: add more stock if liked and/or cook with a lid on for the final 15 minutes.
* For a thicker cassoulet: cook longer than 15 minutes and/or increase the temperature to 200° C / 180° Fan / Gas 6.
Check the seasoning again and serve either on its own, with green vegetables or salad, plus potatoes or bread if liked.
Can be chilled and stored in the fridge for 2-3 days or frozen.
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