The Evening Pot of Stew

Tonight was a clean the fridge and make a simple one pot stew at one time night!

The idea behind this is that you want to use ingredients that will balance one another and create hearty delicious stew. For example, if you have leftover roast chicken, you can make a stew out of potatoes, carrots, celery, onion and garlic.

Tonight I got lucky: I had a bunch of leftovers that needed to be used or tossed. The ingredients were:

Andouille Sausage

Half a can of white beans

A cup and a half of white rice (leftover from Chinese night...)

Half a can of tomato paste

Two cups of chicken broth

1 Yukon Gold potato

These things go together perfectly well, and the seasoning in the sausage meant that I only needed to add a bit of kosher salt and pepper (okay I added a Beef Bullion cube as well), and I was golden.

The process is just as easy:

1. In a medium-sized dutch oven, saute onion and minced garlic together until brown, then add a pinch of kosher salt and two turns of black pepper.
2. Add in your potatoes or other firm vegetables and saute for a moment or two.
3. Add tomato (I had tomato paste) and any other acidic liquid such as wine or vinegar, and deglaze your pot. Add broth and bring to a simmer.
4. Once your pot is simmering nicely, you can add any raw meats. If your meat is already cooked, hold off and let your stew simmer away for a few minutes more and then add them.
5. Once the meat is fully cooked and, in the case of pre-cooked meat, warmed through, add your pre-cooked starches! In my case, this was a can of cooked white beans and some leftover rice.
   
6. Simmer for two to three minutes. Serve with crusty bread, a biscuit, or anything else you want.

You see, the starchy beans and rice, along with the starch in the potatoes, helps thicken the soup. The acid in the tomatoes brighten your stew and give it a great depth of flavor. Again, since the Andouille had so much flavor (and heat), I didn't add anything else in terms of spices. But spice accordingly depending on what you have around the house to throw in your stew pot.

The result:

Enjoy! xoxo