Showing posts with label Andouille sausage. Show all posts
White Bean Soup with Andouille Sausage and Spinach
in Andouille sausage, Beans, Carrots, Entree, Sausages, Slow cooker, Soups, Spinach on Friday, November 18, 2011
I swoon over white bean soup and this recipe for it is fantastic! Bean soup was at the top of the list of my favorite meals when I was young and still is today. When I was a kid, I loved to be at Grandma’s for Saturday supper since she served bean soup; generally with a ham bone, every Saturday evening year round ~ along with cornbread and iced sweet tea.
Sometimes, I like bean soup jazzed up and spicy. So, this time I cooked it with andouille sausage. Bill bought links of it at our great Italian meat market the other day and it has been driving me crazy; smelling the aromatic flavors every time I opened the refrigerator so I could hardly wait to cook it in this soup. The rich spicy flavor of the sausage is Cajun all the way and a great addition to the beans. And since I like spinach almost as much as Popeye does, I included a whole bag of it in the soup.
It’s a tasty soup for supper any evening, plus the dried beans are a great source of protein and easy on your food budget also. Cooking it in a slow cooker makes it so easy with not having to stir it periodically. And of course, bean soup demands fresh baked corn bread ~ a perfect meal in my way of thinking. The bean soup is possibly even better the next day!
White Bean Soup with Andouille Sausage and Spinach
Ingredients:
1 pound dried great northern beans
½ pound andouille sausage links, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced thin
½ teaspoon dried thyme
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
9 ounces fresh spinach, roughly torn
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
In 6 quart slow cooker, combine the beans, sausage, onion, carrots and thyme.
Add broth and stir to combine.
Cover and cook until the beans are tender, on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.
Skim fat off top.
Before serving, add the spinach leaves and cover.
Cook until the spinach is tender, about 15-20 minutes.
Add the vinegar and salt and pepper.
Serves 6
If you are a white bean soup fanatic like me, you will love this soup. It is absolutely perfectly delicious, I am not kidding!!!
Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips, recipes and cookbook giveaway!
Cajun Gumbo
in Andouille sausage, Bell peppers, Celery, Chicken, Entree, Fish/Seafood, Gumbo, Onions, Rice, Sausages, Shrimp, Soups on Saturday, October 1, 2011
We love New Orleans
Speaking of gumbo, look at the lengthy list of ingredients below and don’t let it put you off! It’s fairly simple and except for the roux can be cooked at an easy pace. What it takes is time and patience. But, the result is well worth it.
Roux! It is the key ingredient! Respect it, treat it gently, don’t rush it and all will be right with the gumbo! It takes patience and a lot of arm-numbing stirring. When the oil is so hot it is almost smoking, add the flour, a bit at a time and stir. Turn the heat down to low or medium-low and be ready for roughly 50 minutes of constant stirring. Oh, my aching arm!
But, be sure to be a good Cajun cook and don’t burn the roux! If it burns, you have to throw it out and start over. We’re talking about maybe a half-hour wasted and then starting over again. The first time cooking gumbo, I made the roux three times; burning it on the first two attempts. I was ready to give up but, sometimes I’m obstinate and want to win. The third time was a charm, perfect! Just don’t try to rush the process!
While I’m stirring the roux, pesky Bill (those of you who know him, understand just what I mean!) keeps tossing a heap of beads around my neck while I swerve and try to dodge them, hoping they don’t end up in the pot. I just keep playing music, singing, playing mind games, avoid looking at the clock and keep on stirring, minding my own business. At first the roux will be tan, then it gradually starts to darken, then it is cocoa colored, then it turns to a beautiful dark mahogany and then you have mastered it. It is an amazing thing to watch as the color changes.
Now you can start adding the remaining ingredients and only stirring frequently. Finally, the last ingredient to add is the gumbo file' powder and there you have such a delicious meal. It is so good and bound to make everyone happy and feeling a little like “Nawlins,” as Bill says!
By the way, this is Cajun gumbo, not Creole! Creole gumbo has a lighter, medium brown roux and includes tomatoes. Cajun gumbo has a very dark roux and never contains tomatoes.
Cajun Gumbo
Ingredients:
3 ½ pounds whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
6 teaspoons McCormick Cajun Seasoning
2-4 tablespoons oil
1 cup unsifted all-purpose flour
1 cup vegetable oil
1½ cups diced onion
1½ cups diced celery
1½ cups green bell pepper, diced
8 cups chicken stock, or more
2 pounds Andouille sausage, coarsely chopped
1 pound shrimp
½ cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
2 tablespoons Old Bay
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 pound medium fresh or frozen shrimp
½ teaspoon gumbo file' powder*
5 cups cooked rice
Method:
Coat cut-up chicken with flour and Cajun seasoning. Sauté in 2-4 tablespoons of oil until cooked. Once cooled, remove the skin and bone from the meat, chop coarsely. Set aside.
Pour the chicken stock in a large kettle.
Add parsley, lemon juice, sugar, oregano, thyme, Old Bay
For the roux:
In a large heavy pan or Dutch oven, heat 1 cup oil on high until almost smoking hot. Add 1 cup flour and stir constantly until the flour browns from tan to a dark mahogany color, being careful not to let it burn. Stir constantly for 45 to 55 minutes.
Stir into the roux the onion, celery, green pepper and cook until vegetables are soft, about 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove the roux to a bowl so that it doesn’t keep cooking in the hot pan.
Add the hot roux to the stock very carefully a little at a time so as to not let it boil over. Bring the mixture to a boil. You should have just enough roux to properly thicken the stock. If it becomes a little too thick, just add a little more stock. It should coat the back of a spoon nicely when done.
Add cooked chicken and Andouille sausage to the pot and cook for about 45 minutes over medium heat stirring quite often. This is a thick soup and you want to be careful that it doesn’t stick or burn to the bottom.
Stir in the shrimp and cook until the shrimp is cooked through about 10-15 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Add file' powder. Stir well.
To serve, spoon some rice into a soup bowl and ladle gumbo over the top.
8 servings
Pam’s notes: I have a large spatula with a sharp edge that is perfect for stirring the bottom of the pan when cooking the roux and for stirring after the chicken and sausage have been added to the gumbo mixture.
*Filé (say fee-lay) powder is a seasoning made from the ground, dried leaves of the sassafras tree. It’s an integral part of Cajun cooking, and is used to thicken and add unique flavors to Gumbos and stews. File' powder should be stirred into the gumbo after it is removed from the heat. Undue cooking will make file' powder tough and stringy. In other words, do not let gumbo boil after the file' powder has been added.
A bowl of gumbo served over rice is just about as good as you can get!
Bon Appetite!!!
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