Mistakes to Perfection

A few times a month we have Sausage, Beans, and Rice around here.  It's my cheap meal and the kids actually eat it up.  But after a year or so of that even I don't want to look at it again.

Southern Living March issue had a recipe for Sausage and Bean Stew

Alright, now you're talking

Can I just say I've made it 3 times now in the past 3 weeks? 

But there's a confession in there.  The first day I made it I screwed up.  I forgot to add the 3 cups of water to it AND I didn't puree a cup of the beans at the end.

AND GUESS WHAT?  It was perfection

So the next week the inlaws came over and I decided to make the stew correctly

AND IT BOMBED

Ok so moral of the story?  Sometimes even when you screw up it's ok

So I decided to see if I could duplicate my mistake and fix it

Bam...We've got a winner

Fixes?  Add 2 lbs of sausage (you can never have enough meat around here)
            Only add 1.5 cups of water instead of 3 (and eye it towards the end to see if you need more)

I omitted the parm rind (I never have those on hand) and rosemary sprig
            and this time I did puree 1 cup of the beans with some liquid

I dream of this again.  It was that good!  

Sausage and Bean Stew

Ingredients

• 1 pound smoked sausage
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (48-oz.) container reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 3 cups dried great Northern beans
• 2 cups chopped yellow onion
• 3/4 cup chopped carrot
• 1/2 cup chopped celery

• 10 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Parmesan cheese rind
• 1 fresh rosemary sprig
• Garnishes: chopped fresh parsley, Parmesan cheese

Preparation

1. Cut sausage into 2-inch pieces, and halve sausage pieces lengthwise, cutting to but not through other side. Cook half of sausage in 1 Tbsp. hot oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat 2 minutes on each side or until browned. Transfer sausage and drippings to a 7-qt. slow cooker. Repeat with remaining sausage and oil.
2. Add 1 cup broth to skillet, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to loosen browned bits from bottom of skillet. Boil 1 minute or until reduced by half. Stir beans, next 8 ingredients, boiled broth mixture, 3 cups water, and remaining broth into slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH 7 hours or until beans are tender. Discard cheese rind.
3. Stir mixture with rosemary sprig 30 seconds to 1 minute; discard rosemary. Remove 1 cup beans, and process in a blender 1 to 2 minutes or until smooth. Stir pureed bean mixture into slow cooker. (Repeat procedure with 1 more cup beans, if a thicker consistency is desired.) Serve immediately.

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