Vegetarian cassoulet

 

Traditional cassoulet recipes feature a wide array of meats in the bean-heavy dish, with the actual meats varying by region. This recipe attempts to build up those layers of flavors without the meat. Fair warning: You need to start on this one the night before, and there's a certain elapsed time commitment.

Vegetarian Cassoulet (Cassoulet de Legumes)

From "The Vegetarian Bistro" by Marlena Spieler (Chronicle Books). This 1997 tome now costs a fair amount in paperback. I scored it on the closeout shelf in 1998 for $3.98, so the cost per recipe (250 of them) has been pretty low.

Ingredients

1 pound dried white beans

1 bay leaf

Fresh thyme sprig, optional

2 small onions, peeled and quartered, optional

1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

2 heads of garlic, separated into cloves and peeled

1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 potato, peeled and diced

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 teaspoon herbes de Provence, crushed

¼ teaspoon dried thyme

1½ cups dry red wine

2 cups tomatoes, fresh or canned

1½ cups vegetable stock

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Method

Soak beans overnight in enough water to cover them. Drain. Place beans in a large pan and add enough water to cover by an inch. Add 1 teaspoon salt, bay leaf, thyme sprig and onions. (The thyme and onions are optional additions I made and I think they're worth it, because the beans are mainstays of this dish.) Place lid on top and bring to a simmer. Partially uncover and cook for 1 ½ to 2 hours until just tender, adding more warm water if needed. (Older beans take longer to cook, but watch that you’re not cooking them to mush since you’ll be giving them a further long cooking time later in the recipe.) Alternatively, place the beans, water, salt, bay leaf, thyme and onions in a slow cooker and cook for 4 to 6 hours.

When beans are cooked, remove onion, thyme sprig and bay leaf and drain beans. (If you've used the onion and thyme sprig, you can use that strained cooking liquid as your broth later on in the recipe.) Place in a greased large, deep baking dish. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 

Set aside 5 garlic cloves. In a large deep skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Cook remaining whole garlic cloves, red pepper, carrot and potato until lightly browned.  Sprinkle with herbes de Provence and dried thyme, and salt and pepper. Place on top of beans in casserole dish.

Pour red wine over top of the veggies in the casserole dish. Top with tomatoes and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Pour stock over the top.

Cover casserole tightly with lid or foil. Bake for 1 to 1½ hours, adding more liquid if needed. (It’s actually more likely to be slightly soupy at the end, and that’s what you’re after.)

Meanwhile, mince remaining 5 garlic cloves. Combine with bread crumbs, parsley and remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Remove the casserole from the oven and increase heat to 400. Remove lid and spread a third of the crumb mixture on the top. Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes until a golden crust forms.

Break the crust and stir it into the cassoulet, which helps thicken it a bit. Add another third of the crumb mixture on top and bake for another 15 minutes. Stir in the crust and top with final crumb topping and bake for another 15 minutes until golden. It makes a ton, but it reheats pretty well.

Rating: Flavor and texture-wise, it's a perfectly fine meatless main dish. Effort to flavor-wise, however, it doesn't make the cut into the keeper pile for me. Having spent that much elapsed time fussing with it on and off, I'd been hoping it was to die for. If I'd only spent a couple of hours fussing with it, I might feel differently. But if you're a vegetarian or need a company-level vegetarian offering that seems like you really put in some effort, this is a viable option.