Sausage and White Bean Stew with Swiss Chard & Cinnamon

Name: Hearty Sausage Stew with Beans, Swiss Chard and Cinnamon
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 500g Italian sausages; 3 cloves of garlic; 2 celery sticks; 2 brown onions; 3 tbsp olive oil; a generous pinch of chilli flakes, for warmth, not prickly heat; a few sprigs of rosemary (sage or thyme also work); 2 bay leaves; 1 stick of cinnamon; a small glass of Madeira sweetish sherry, beer or white wine; 2 plum tomatoes from a tin; 1 x 700g jar white beans (or 2 x 400g tins - I like to use 1 cannellini and 1 butter bean); 750ml chicken stock (see page 306 of The Farm Table for tips); 250g Swiss chard or cavolo nero

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This recipe for a warming Sausage and White Bean Stew with Swiss Chard and Cinnamon is as simple as it is delicious. Which is VERY. It makes for a wonderful supper or comforting lunch on a cold winter's weekend. So often we find that the best dishes are simple, and this bean and sausage stew is exactly that, easily adapted to whatever ingredients you already have to hand.

The recipe is from chef and farmer Julius Roberts and is somewhere between a soup and a stew. He writes that, "This is a dish I often find myself yearning for on a long, dark evening... As the beans cook they relax into the unctuous broth, studded with rosemary, chilli and cinnamon for a soothing warmth... We eat this on our knees by the fire with rain lashing against the windows. All it needs is a hunk of bread with butter thick enough to leave teeth marks."

Ingredients

If you can, for this recipe, do buy the best quality sausages you can afford -- either the Italian sausages the recipe calls for (you can usually find these in the chilled section of good delis) or traditional British bangers. Buying sausages from the butchers often means a wide choice of sausages, perhaps some speciality flavours now and again, and it means that you are buying sausages with a high meat content. Many supermarket sausages, if you read their ingredients, contain as little as 50% pork meat. For the best flavour, high meat content is key, even if you don't have a good butcher near you or don't want to order online.

Otherwise, we love how adaptable the rest of the ingredients in this sausage stew are!

Italian sausages
garlic
celery
brown onions
olive oil
chilli flakes
fresh rosemary (Julius says that thyme and sage also work -- we tried sage, but we think rosemary would have been the better choice, the stew was still DELICIOUS though!)
bay leaves (fresh or dried will work here)
cinnamon stick
Madeira, sweet sherry, beer or white wine (we used Madeira and it added a lovely rich note to the stew)
plum tomatoes from a tin (plum tomatoes are good here as they'll melt away into the stew, but a scant ½ a tin of chopped tomatoes can be substituted if they're all you have in the cupboard, Mutti do some really good finely chopped ones! Also, you won't use the whole tin, but they freeze well.)
jar of white beans or 2 x tins (any mix of butter beans or white beans work here, we used a jar of Bold Bean Co. white beans and they worked really well!)
chicken stock (fresh is best)
swiss chard or cavelo nero (now we've made this recipe, we think spinach or lemon chard would work really well too!)

What we loved about making this recipe

This Sausage Stew recipe was really easy to make, and was super aromatic, making the kitchen smell fantastic! We also loved how Julius has provided a couple of different options for ingredients like the wine and the greens so that it we felt confident adapting it with what was already in the fridge. That it cooks on the hob without the need to turn the oven on was also a plus, leaving it free and at the right temperature to bake bread to serve on the side.

One thing we would note is it involves a very large amount of greens - perfect if you grow your own and you've got a big glut to deal with, but possibly a little too much if you're buying them from a farm shop or if your pot is not quite big enough to wilt them down. We used cavelo nero and halved the amount, which seemed the right amount in the finished recipe.

Also, as we mentioned above Italian sausages - which tend to have a longer shelf life in the fridge and be a little firmer in texture - are what the recipe calls for, but can be a little tricky to get hold if if you don't have a good deli that carries them near you. We instead used a mixture of Field & Flower Pork and Fennel Sausages and South Devon Chilli Sausages. The pork and fennel was the perfect flavour in the stew, but they fell apart a little during cooking. The pork and chilli held together in little sausage meatballs perfectly, but we don't think the flavour was quite right for the stew.

We recommend going for the best pork sausages you can find with as few other ingredients as possible if you can't find Italian ones.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this sausage stew recipe gluten-free?

Yes, this dish is gluten-free, depending on the sausages you use - make sure they don't have any added gluten if this is important to you!

Can I freeze this?

Yes this recipe freezes well. Just ensure fully defrosted when you heat it up and make sure it is hot all the way through before eating.

How long will any leftovers keep?

We would keep any leftovers form up to 3 days in the fridge. We only had half a portion leftover, and it was delicious topped with a jammy egg and a little spinach wilted into it to make it enough for a meal.

About The Book

Julius Roberts smiling with flowers in the forefront on a book cover

The Farm Table by chef and farmer Julius Roberts is one of those cookbooks that we read cover-to-cover for Julius' beautiful stories of seasonality from his farm before heading into the kitchen to try some of his classic, produce-forward recipes, a lot of which come with a modern twist. Even familiar recipes you might think you already know how to make are re-imagined, and the recipes are written in an accessable, friendly way which can't help but make the act of cooking them really relaxing.

Other recipes we've tried and loved from The Farm Table so far (other than this Sausage and White Bean Stew of course!) include the Braised Short Ribs (pg 77) and the Epic Tarragon Roast Chicken (pg 275). We also can't wait to try the Egg Curry with Coconut Sambol (pg 62), the Spinach, Creme Fraiche and Smoked Trout Pasta (pg 122) and the Wild Garlic and Asparagus Carbonara (pg 123).

You can order your copy here (Ebury Press, £27).

Hearty Sausage Stew with Beans, Swiss Chard and Cinnamon

Vintage bowl of sausage and bean stew on a red floral tea towel.

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A recipe by Julius Roberts, this warming sausage stew with beans, swiss chard and cinnamon is simple to make but takes a little time on the hob for the flavours to melt together. It is so delicious, and easily adaptable.

Author: Julius Roberts
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes
Yield: Serves 4-5 1x
Category: Dinner
Cuisine: British
Diet: Gluten Free

Ingredients

Scale

500g Italian sausages
3 cloves of garlic
2 celery sticks
2 brown onions
3 tbsp olive oil
a generous pinch of chilli flakes, for warmth, not prickly heat
a few sprigs of rosemary (sage or thyme also work)
2 bay leaves
1 stick of cinnamon
a small glass of Madeira sweetish sherry, beer or white wine
2 plum tomatoes from a tin
1 x 700g jar white beans (or 2 x 400g tins - I like to use 1 cannellini and 1 butter bean)
750ml chicken stock (see page 306 of The Farm Table for tips)
250g Swiss chard or cavolo nero

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Instructions

Start by slicing the skin of the sausages so you can remove the meat. Then roughly break into small meatball-sized pieces.
Finely slice the garlic, celery and onions.
Get a large heavy-based pan hot, drizzle in the olive oil and, once warm, add the sausage. Fry for a few minutes to release the fat and get some colour on the meat. Then turn the heat right down and add the garlic, chilli flakes, rosemary, bay leaves and cinnamon. Don’t let the garlic take on any colour – this stage is about slowly infusing flavour into the oil, so you want a low heat and a gentle sizzle.
When ready, pour in the Madeira to deglaze the pan – you can do this early, to cool down the pan if your garlic is beginning to colour. With a wooden spoon, scrape up all the goodness from the bottom of the pan, then add the onions and celery, and crush in the tomatoes. Season generously, mix well and cook on a gentle heat for 10–12 minutes, until the onions are sweet and wonderfully softened.
Add the beans and pour in the stock. Bring to a gentle simmer, then cook for about 20–30 minutes, until the broth thickens and the flavours come together.
Strip the stalks from the Swiss chard and chop them into 2cm pieces. Add them to the broth and simmer for a few minutes, then add the leaves and stir through. Put the lid on, turn off the heat and leave for 5 minutes.
When ready, remove the lid and have a taste. You might want to add a touch more chilli flakes if the warmth isn’t quite there, and more salt if the broth isn’t rich enough.
Pour generously into bowls and serve with thick slices of lavishly buttered bread for dunking.