Vegan Bean Cassoulet Recipes

Steps:

• Slice the onions, about 1/4" thick. Chop the carrots, celery, and potatoes into 1/2" pieces. Slice the garlic.
• Put the onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, garlic and beans into the crock pot and stir to combine. Add herbes de provence, salt, pepper, and bay leaf and stir again.
• Pour tomatoes (undrained) and broth over the veggies in the pot.
• To make the bread crumb topping - combine olive oil, bread, parsley and garlic in a food processor; puree on high until finely crumbled. Sprinkle half of the bread crumbs on top of the crock pot mixture.
• Cover and cook on low heat 6-8 hours.
• Just before serving, saute remaining bread crumbs in a dry skillet until lightly toasted. Stir the cassoulet, then top with the toasted bread crumbs.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°F In a large skillet, sauté onion, carrot and potato in olive oil over medium-high heat 5 minutes. Add garlic, herbes de Provence, salt and pepper and sauté another minute.
• Combine vegetables with bay leaf, beans, tomatoes and vegetable broth in a large, lightly oiled casserole dish. Bake uncovered 20 minutes.
• To make the bread crumb topping - combine olive oil, bread, parsley and garlic in a food processor; puree on high until finely crumbled.
• Remove cassoulet from oven and take out bay leaf. Raise oven temperature to 400°F (205°C). Sprinkle half the bread crumbs on top; bake another 15 minutes.
• Remove cassoulet from oven; stir bread crumb topping into beans. Top with remaining bread crumbs. Bake another 15 minutes or until topping is lightly browned. Serve immediately.

Steps:

• Put beans in a large bowl, and cover with cold water, then add baking soda, and allow to soak overnight.
• Place the pork hocks, sliced pork belly, reserved pork skin and, if using, the pig ears into a stockpot, and fill with water to cover them by several inches, then set over high heat to come to a boil. Let the meats and skin blanch for 5 to 6 minutes, then remove from the water and allow to cool. Put the slices of pork belly on a plate, then dice the pork skin and, if using, julienne the pig ears, and add these to the plate. Cover, and place in the refrigerator overnight.
• Now turn to the cooled pork hocks and the duck legs. In a small bowl, combine four-spice powder with ground cardamom, ground coriander, additional nutmeg, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Use this spice mixture to season the duck legs and the cooled pork hocks, then put them on a platter, cover and place in the refrigerator overnight.
• Heat oven to 350. Melt the duck fat or duck fat and lard in a heavy, oven-safe pot deep enough to hold the duck legs, pork hocks and the three heads of garlic, then add the meats and the garlic to it, along with the bay leaves, thyme, rosemary and star anise, then place in the oven to simmer for approximately an hour and a half, or until both the duck and the pork are cooked tender and soft and the heads of garlic have almost collapsed. Remove the meats and the garlic from the fat, and allow to cool slightly. (Strain and reserve the perfumed duck fat for another use - more duck confit, say, or to cook potatoes. It will keep in the refrigerator, covered, for quite some time.)
• Drain soaked beans. Put around 5 quarts of water in a large, heavy-bottomed pot, then add the beans, along with the bouquet garni, and bring it to a boil over high heat. Lower heat to a simmer, and cook until the beans are softening but not cooked through, approximately 30 minutes. Reserve the beans and cooking liquid separately. Discard bouquet garni.
• Meanwhile, return pot to medium heat, and add to it 2 tablespoons of the reserved duck fat. When it shimmers, add the garlic sausages to the pot, and sauté until lightly browned, approximately 5 minutes, then remove and reserve. Add the diced carrots, celery, celery root, turnip and rutabaga to the pot, and sweat them slowly in the fat, stirring often, until they begin to soften, approximately 10 minutes. Add the partly cooked beans to the pot, along with the reserved diced pork skin and the ears if you're using them, then the tomato paste, and stir to combine.
• As the vegetables sweat, remove the bones from the cooled pork hocks, and squeeze the heads of garlic to release the garlic confit within. Add both to the bean pot.
• Add enough of the reserved bean-cooking water to the bean pot to just cover the beans, then nestle the duck legs, the sausages and the slices of pork belly on top of the beans. Put the pot in the oven to simmer for 30 minutes to an hour, or until the beans are cooked through.
• Increase oven heat to 450, and cook until the beans are bubbling and crusted around the edges and the meats are deeply crisp on top (about 10-15 minutes). Let rest 10 minutes or so before serving.