Gwen’s Fast and Frugal Smoked Sausage and Bean Cassoulet
As I discussed in an earlier post, prices are rising fast at the grocery store, and our budget has really taken a hit from these increases. One of the strategies that I’m using to cut back and save money on our food bill is to avoid food waste and plan our meals around ingredients I am able to get on sale or another discount.
I came up with the following recipe to use up some of our leftovers. It was fast, and cheap to make, and tasted pretty good, so I thought I would share it with you dear readers!
Getting Creative with Leftovers
The other day I was in one of the big chain discount dollar stores and was surprised to find a big 2.5-pound package of smoked sausage in their refrigerator section marked down to $3. That means I was getting preserved pork at about a $1.20 a pound! I bought three of the discount packages.
The first night, we made hot dogs with one of the packages. We served them with two 15-ounce cans of Hormel “no beans” chili that had been marked down at another store. We also had sliced onions and peppers, and some sauerkraut, mustard and ketchup for additional toppings. One package contained enough sausages for us to have hot dogs for two days.
Today, I had just one lonely sausage left from that first package. I didn’t want to open another package and I didn’t think I could handle eating another hot dog for a third day in a row anyway. I also had three tablespoons each of leftover chili and kraut.
I got to thinking about what I could make with so few ingredients, and after rummaging through my cabinets and freezer I came up with this cheap and easy take off of a classic French bean cassoulet using these leftovers and a few low-cost items I had in my pantry.
Fast and Frugal Smoked Sausage and Bean Cassoulet Recipe
Ingredients:
Two tablespoons olive oil.
Two medium sized potatoes, each about the size of your fist. Peel and dice.
One medium yellow onion. Peel and chop. Reserve and freeze the onion top, bottom and peel with your other vegetable scraps to make broth at a later time.
One stalk of celery thinly sliced.
One medium carrot peeled and thinly sliced.
One smoked sausage link scored and thinly sliced.
Two to three tablespoons of leftover chili and kraut. Omit this if you don’t have it.
A half a cup of salsa. Omit if you don’t have it.
One tablespoon Worcestershire sauce.
One to two tablespoons ketchup. Omit if you don’t have it.
One 15-ounce can of stewed tomatoes, add the whole can, including the juice, to the stew.
Six 15-ounce cans of your favorite beans, drained. I used two cans of cannellini beans, a can of Great Northern beans, and a can each of red kidney beans, pinto beans and green beans.
Two teaspoons Italian seasoning herb mix.
One half teaspoon ground black pepper.
One half teaspoon ground garlic.
One half cup of frozen or drained, canned spinach. Omit if you don’t have it.
Six to eight cups of water.
Instructions:
Warm a six-quart Dutch oven on the stove top over medium high heat. Add the olive oil to the heated pot.
Add in the diced potatoes, and brown for about two minutes.
Add in the sliced onion and stir for an additional minute and then add in the celery.
Stir for another minute before adding in the sliced carrot. Stir for another two minutes.
Add in the sliced sausage and continue to stir for one to two minutes.
Stir in the salsa, the can of stewed tomatoes, the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce at this step and stir for another couple of minutes.
At this point, it’s time to add in your drained cans of beans. Stir all of these ingredients until they are well combined.
Add in your herbs and spices and stir some more.
Add in the spinach and stir well.
Add enough water to fill up your pot, about six to eight cups of water. Turn up the heat and bring the stew to a boil. Allow to boil for about three minutes, stirring continuously. Reduce heat to medium and cover the pot, allowing the mixture to simmer for another thirty minutes or so until the soup reduces and thickens.
Ladle into bowls and serve hot with your favorite bread.
Gwen’s Fast and Frugal Smoked Sausage and Bean Cassoulet with Cornbread Croutons
Serving Ideas:
I had a couple of small slices of cornbread leftover from another meal earlier in the week. I didn’t want to make more bread and didn’t want to serve crackers either. Instead, I crumbled the cornbread into a shallow pan and toasted the bits and crumbs in the oven for about twenty minutes to make a sort of crouton.
We ladled our soup into bowls and sprinkled them with the toasted bits once it was ready to serve. This made about 10 large bowls of a warm, hearty jazzed up “frank and beans” soup that used up my leftovers and didn’t cost very much.
I eliminated food waste this week by using up our leftovers. I made delicious food while saving money! I call that a budget win!
Gwen's Green Thumb 