Hello, my new favorite dinner.
Yep, that is it. I am waiting to try a recipe from the Veganomicon that disappoints me, but I have yet to. The farm share left me with tons of leeks, which I have never cooked with. I turned to my cookbooks to find a recipe to use them in, before they ran the risk of spoiling.
I stumbled across the leek and bean cassoulet in the Veganomicon. I really love stew-like dishes as they are warm, savory, and stick to your insides. This recipe seemed like it had to be a winner, and any of the pictures I found of the dish on other blogs or recipe sites simply looked amazing.
I got to work cutting all of the vegetables, boiling the potatoes, and getting the dough ready for the biscuits that would be placed on top. The majority of effort put into the dish really goes in the prep of the veggies, but other than that it is fairly simple and only requires you to have the patience to wait while it cooks (which is harder than you would think, given how great this smells). I knew it was going to be delicious even when I was mixing the leeks, potatoes, beans (I ended up using butter beans rather than white, as the recipe calls for, along with string beans) and carrots over the stove in the vegetable stock.
After it was done cooking over the stove, I placed it into a 9×13 Pyrex casserole dish and placed the biscuit dough on top. After popping it into the oven, I was excited. I knew it was going to be fantastic, and I had a hard time forcing myself to let it cool after before eating it. This is such a great fall/winter casserole. It is warm and comforting, and colorful as well. The potatoes, carrots and string beans come out perfectly soft with just the right amount of bite left in them. The leeks, which I thought were going to be overwhelming in the dish, give the gravy the perfect amount of flavor without making everything taste too onion-y. I ended up stirring the biscuit in with the gravy and vegetables, getting bites of it with every couple of spoonfuls. It is amazing with the gravy, and adds just a tiny bit of sweetness and richness to the dish, contrasting well with the hearty vegetables.
I can’t wait to make this again. It really isn’t too difficult of a dish, and could be made the night before to be put into the oven when ready to eat. It is fairly inexpensive, especially with some our vegetables coming from the already purchased farm share, and has a ton of servings, especially if you are making it for just yourself. Even for two I think you would be able to get at least two dinners out of it. I even had it for breakfast before work one morning, it was great even then!
Feast 