This version of the slow-cooked French casserole takes a little of the meat and replaces it with juicy stock enriched lentils.
By Jess Lacey
Lentil and Sausage Cassoulet
This version of the slow-cooked French casserole takes a little of the meat and replaces it with juicy stock enriched lentils.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 2 hours 30 mins
- Total Time: 2 hours 50 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 medium onions, finely chopped
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 350g Kielbasa or good quality garlic sausage, sliced into 2cm thick slices
- 150g bacon, chopped
- 250g lentilles verts or puy lentils
- 1 x 400g tin of flageolot beans, drained
- 4 tomatoes, chopped, or half a tin of tomatoes
- 2 tsp tomato puree
- 300ml good chicken, pork or beef stock
- 150ml red wine
- 2 bay leaves
- 150g breadcrumbs
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Cook the lentils for 10-15 minutes in a pot of boiling water with a bay leaf and a clove of garlic until chewy and almost completely cooked.
- Fry the bacon in a large ovenproof casserole with a little olive oil over a medium heat until starting to crisp.
- Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve.
- Fry the onion over a medium-low heat in the bacon grease until glossy and soft 6-8 minutes.
- Add the garlic and the kielbasa and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
- Add the bacon, wine, stock, bay leaf, tomato puree and tomatoes and cook for 15 minutes.
- Add the beans and the lentils and season well.
- Cook in the oven at 175C for 20 minutes until some of the liquid has absorbed.
- Top with the breadcrumbs and cook for another hour to 1 and 1/4 hour until the liquid has been almost completely absorbed, the cassoulet is bubbling and breadcrumbs are crunchy (if it is not cooking fast enough, you can reduce it a bit on the stove at the end, but this will make the breadcrumbs a bit soggy).
- Leave to sit for 10 minutes to rest and then serve.
- Alternatively, refrigerate overnight and reheat the next day.
