This sausage and butter bean stew is a sausage casserole cut down to 25 minutes and one pot. Sausages are sliced into chunks and browned, then simmered with onion, garlic, thyme and smoked paprika in a tomato sauce thick with butter beans. It needs nothing more than a hunk of crusty bread, and it travels well in a flask on a cold evening outdoors.
Why this works
Sausages sliced into chunks brown on their cut faces in a few minutes and cook through in the sauce in 10, where whole ones would take twice as long. The brown bits they leave on the pan dissolve into the tomatoes and flavor the whole pot.
Canned butter beans are already cooked, so they only need to heat through and soak up the sauce. Smoked paprika and a spoonful of mustard give the smoky, tangy depth a long cooked casserole would build.
Key ingredients
- Pork sausages. Meaty, well seasoned ones such as mild Italian sausage. They hold their shape when sliced.
- Butter beans. Big, creamy and mild. Cannellini or haricot beans work too, and are closer in size to the small beans in the photo.
- Smoked paprika. A smoky flavor in seconds. Sliced chorizo browned with the sausages adds more.
- Fresh thyme. The stripped leaves go in with the garlic. A pinch of dried thyme works if that is what you have.
Amounts for 2 to 12 people are in the recipe card below, in grams or cups.
Method
- 01
Slice and chop
Slice the sausages on the diagonal into ¾ inch chunks and chop the onion. Peel the garlic, drop the cloves into the chopper and roll it on the countertop until fine.
Rolling Garlic Chopper - 02
Strip the thyme
Push each thyme sprig through the smallest hole of the stripper that fits and pull, so the leaves gather on the near side. If you are using kale, pull the stalks through the large holes and tear up the leaves.
Herb & Kale Stripper - 03
Brown the sausages
Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet or shallow casserole over a medium high heat. Add the sausage chunks and cook for 6 to 7 minutes, turning, until browned on all sides.
- 04
Soften the onion
Add the onion and cook for 4 minutes until soft. Stir in the garlic, thyme leaves and smoked paprika for 1 minute, then the tomato paste for 1 minute more.
- 05
Simmer
Tip in the tomatoes, beans, stock and mustard, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer with the lid off for 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until thick and the sausage is cooked through to 160°F. Add the kale, if using, for the last 4 minutes.
- 06
Season and serve
Season with salt and pepper and serve straight from the pan, with crusty bread for the sauce.
What to serve it with
With crusty bread, or spooned over a microwave baked potato. For another sausage dinner, try the sausage and tomato pasta.
Storing and reheating
- Fridge
- Cool quickly, cover and eat within 2 days.
- Freezer
- Freeze in portions for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge overnight.
- Reheat
- In a pan over a medium heat with a splash of water, stirring, until piping hot all the way through.
Questions
Yes. Strip the leaves off the stalks, tear them up and stir them in for the last 4 minutes of simmering, until wilted and bright green.
The chunks should be firm and browned outside with no pink in the middle. A thermometer pushed into a piece should read 160°F.
Only if they are cooked first. Dried beans need soaking overnight and an hour or more of simmering, so canned beans are what keep this to 25 minutes.
Yes, for up to 3 months. Cool it quickly, freeze it in portions and defrost it in the fridge overnight before reheating until piping hot.
Recipe
Sausage and butter bean one pot in 25 minutes
Sliced sausages browned and simmered with butter beans, tomatoes, smoked paprika and thyme. One pot, 25 minutes, bread for the sauce. By Hannah Ellis.
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Total
- 25 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
Method
- 01Slice the sausages on the diagonal into ¾ inch chunks and chop the onion. Peel the garlic, drop the cloves into the chopper and roll it on the countertop until fine.
- 02Push each thyme sprig through the smallest hole of the stripper that fits and pull, so the leaves gather on the near side. If you are using kale, pull the stalks through the large holes and tear up the leaves.
- 03Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet or shallow casserole over a medium high heat. Add the sausage chunks and cook for 6 to 7 minutes, turning, until browned on all sides.
- 04Add the onion and cook for 4 minutes until soft. Stir in the garlic, thyme leaves and smoked paprika for 1 minute, then the tomato paste for 1 minute more.
- 05Tip in the tomatoes, beans, stock and mustard, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer with the lid off for 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until thick and the sausage is cooked through to 160°F. Add the kale, if using, for the last 4 minutes.
- 06Season with salt and pepper and serve straight from the pan, with crusty bread for the sauce.
