Slow-Cooker Cassoulet

This started out as some kind of slow-cooker chicken and then evolved from there. I didn't use a recipe, so this is completely made up.

Ingredients

• 4 skinless chicken thighs (we used boneless, but whatever) with excess fat trimmed off
• 1 small yukon gold potato, cubed (we used 1/2 of a huge potato)
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1-2tbsp lemon juice
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme (or equivalent dried?)
• 1tsp dried rosemary (fresh would have been better)
• 2 bay leaves
• a few red pepper flakes
• 1 can cannolini or great northern beans (slow cookers don't get hot enough for dried beans to not be poisonous, apparently)
• 1/2lb smoked beef sausage

To a slow cooker, add the chicken, stock, lemon juice, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, and red pepper flakes. Set to low and cook for about 4-5 hours. Then add everything else. Cook for another 2-3 hours. Season to taste.

Thoughts: Ridiculously easy, but amazingly delicious. The only problem we had was that once we added everything else, the slow-cooker wouldn't heat up enough. We couldn't get it back to a simmer, so we ultimately had to throw everything in a big stock pot and simmer it for 5 minutes or so to make sure it was done. Even so, worth it. Claire said a touch more salt the second day since the potatoes absorb some salt.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Bean and Chorizo Soup

I hate it when you have a recipe, and you don't have one of the ingredients, so you go buy it and then it turns out that you don't have several other ingredients. That's when you improvise.
Ingredients

• 12oz chorizo sausage, chopped or crumbled
  
• 1 large red onion, chopped finely
  
• 4 stalks of celery, chopped
  
• ~3c kale, washed and chopped roughly
  
• 6 cloves garlic, mashed
  
• 1 scant tbsp dried thyme
  
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  
• 1 can great northern beans, drained and rinsed
  
• 4c chicken broth
  
• 1/2c extra dry vermouth
  
• dried parsley, olive oil, salt, pepper
  

In a large pot, start the chorizo cooking. When it starts to get a little brown, add the vegetables (except the garlic). Cook over medium-high heat until the veg are starting to get a little tender, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for another minute or so, until the garlic is "fragrant". Whatever. Add everything else plus some parsley and, yes, even some olive oil. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve! Thoughts: Claire and I both felt that this was missing something. We couldn't quite tell what it was, though. When we reheated the soup the following day, the flavor had improved - it was much richer. Even so, I think that this soup would benefit from, I don't know, mushrooms or something? I mean, this soup was good AND it was easy - don't get me wrong - but it doesn't have the depth of flavor I had hoped for. Disaster Index: 2/10

Tomato and Cannellini Panade

Based on a recipe from the kitchn blog. Very similar to ribollita.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, diced
  
• 2tbsp minced garlic
  
• 28oz can of diced tomatoes in juice
  
• 1c chicken broth (or vegetable)
  
• 1tbsp brown sugar
  
• 1 bay leaf
  
• pinch of anise
  
• 1tsp oregano
  
• 1tsp thyme
  
• 3-5 slices of good, crusty bread, cubed
  
• 16oz can cannellini beans, rinsed
  
• 1/2c parmesan
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Saute the onion in olive oil (with a pinch of salt) until translucent. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant - 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes & juices, and the broth along with the brown sugar, bay leaf, and anise. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. Fish out the bay leaf and add the bread and beans. Stir for about 5 minutes, until the bread is mushy. Add a little more broth (1/4 to 1/2c) if needed, and stir some more. The goal is to get something only a LITTLE soupy - the bread soaks up most of the soup, so it's more of a stew. After you've adjusted this to taste, stir in the cheese and see if it doesn't need more salt or some pepper. Serve!

Thoughts: pretty great, but Claire and I agree that it could use some sort of greens. Maybe some frozen spinach? It would be a cinch to toss 5-10oz of frozen chopped spinach. On the plus side, it's a simple recipe and it's easy to adapt to be veg friendly. It's really quite good - I think I prefer it to ribollita texturally, even if they're pretty similar. It's kind of comfort-food. I would definitely make this again, just maybe with some modifications.

Disaster Index: 2/10 - with spinach I'd say a 1/10.

Moroccan Potato Bean Soup

Ingredients

• 6 cups water
  
• 1 (15 ounce) can Cannolini / Great Northern beans
  
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 2 onions, chopped
  
• About 6 red potatoes, cubed
  
• 3 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder (or vegetable bouillon)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
  
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  
• 1 cup whole milk
  
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
  Chives, whatever else you like.
  

Sautee onions in olive oil until they're a little brown. Set aside. In a large pot, add the water and cannolini beans (we didn't drain them) and simmer for 15 minutes. Add everything except the milk and green onions and bring to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Then add the milk and green onions and remove from heat.

Thoughts: this was pretty great. Claire thinks unreservedly that it was fantastic, but I think it had way too much salt. For the future, we could add some carrots. I discovered that a LITTLE bit of honey cut the saltiness by a lot and made it much more palatable to me. Something to consider.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Ribollita

This recipe is a variation on a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis. It's pretty heavily modified, though.

Ingredients:

• olive oil
  
• 1 onion, chopped
  
• 1 carrot, chopped
  
• 2tbsp crushed garlic
  
• 1tbsp tomato paste
  
• 1 15oz can diced tomatoes
  
• 1 10oz package frozen spinach
  
• 1 15oz can cannellini beans or "great northern beans" (what's the diff?), drained
  
• 4c vegetable stock
  
• 1c water
  
• 1 piece Parmesan or Romano rind
  
• bay leaves (1-3), parsley, basil, maybe some thyme, salt, and pepper
  
• bread
  

Heat some oil in a large pan or soup pot. Throw in the onion, carrot, garlic, salt, and pepper. When the onion is translucent, add the tomato paste and stir. Then add tomatoes, spinach, beans, herbs, stock and water, and cheese rind. Simmer, stirring periodically, for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast some bread in the oven (with a little olive oil) at ~350. We use a Madison sour dough, though we've also used traditional Ciabatta. If it's slightly stale, all the better. When it's done toasting, put a piece of bread at the bottom of a bowl and ladle soup over it. Top with more grated cheese and enjoy.

Thoughts: Since we started making this a few months ago it's become a standard. Sometimes we double up on the onions. We've gone as high as 15oz on the frozen spinach, too. This soup is difficult to mess up since most of the main ingredients are just "one can" or "one package". Everyone who's tried this soup has liked it a lot. The original calls for pancetta, though we do it vegetarian style. Still, it might be worth trying some time.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - The only downside is that there are a lot of ingredients I don't usually have. Fortunately, they're mostly non-perishable, so I can stock up and use them bit by bit.