Leek and Bean Cassoulet

Long before I started doing once a month cooking I was regularly making this as a freezer meal.  It's fantastic, like a vegetable pot pie with fluffy biscuits as the crust.  It's great on a cold, winter day, and it's a complete meal that's packed with veggies.  If you have a food processor, it makes making the biscuit dough really fast and easy. 

Adapted from: Veganomicon
Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Heat and Eat
Recipe Column: F

Serves: 6

Stew
2 Yukon gold potatoes, diced
3 cups vegetable stock
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp olive oil
2 leeks, sliced and cleaned
1 onion, diced
1 1/2 cups carrots, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried thyme
3/4 cups frozen peas
15 oz great white northern beans
salt and pepper, to taste

Biscuits
1 cup + 2 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3/8 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into chunks

Make the stew

1. Place the potatoes in a pot and cover with water.  Place over high heat and bring to a boil.  Continue to boil until the potatoes are not quite done.  They should still be a little firm.  Drain the potatoes and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.
2. While the potatoes cook, heat the olive oil in a large, wide pan over medium heat.  Add the carrots, leeks and onions and saute until very soft and starting to brown, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the garlic, thyme, a few grinds of pepper and 0.5 tsp salt and cook for a minute more.
4. Add the potatoes and the frozen peas.  Pour in 2.5 cups of the vegetable stock.  Raise the heat and bring the liquid to a simmer.  Mix the cornstarch with the remaining vegetable stock and add to the pot.
5. Lower the heat to keep the liquid at a simmer.  Let simmer about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix in the beans.  Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.  Cool the stew, and make the biscuits

Make the biscuits

1. Combine the milk and vinegar.
2. Mix the flour and salt.  Cut the butter into the flour until it has the texture of coarse crumbs. (You can do this in the bowl of a food processor.  Just pulse the food processor until you get the desired texture.)
3. Pour the milk and mix until just combined.

To Freeze:

There are two ways to freeze this.  You can divide the stew into pans, and top with balls of the biscuit dough.  Wrap the pan all the way around with plastic wrap and freeze.

-or-

To save on room and pans, you can divide the stew into bags or other containers.  Freeze the stew by itself.  Divide the biscuit dough into balls and freeze on sheet pan lined with parchment paper.  Once the biscuit dough is frozen, divide them into a equal number of containers as the stew.

I tried freezing the biscuit dough rolled flat and thin in a bag.  I found this shape unwieldy to use when it came time to bake.  I think freezing it in balls will be easier to work with,  Although, in general I highly recommend flattening bags to freeze as it makes it so you can fit more in the freezer.

To Serve:

If you froze the casserole assembled in a pan, thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Unwrap the pan to bake.  If you froze it in two containers, thaw the stew container in the refrigerator overnight.  Leave the biscuits in the freezer until it's time to bake.  Pour the stew from its freezer container into a pan.  Top with the frozen biscuits. 

However you chose to freeze it, cover the pan with tin foil and bake at 375 degrees until the stew reaches at least 140 degrees, about an 45 minutes to an hour.  Take the foil off towards the end of baking to allow the biscuits to brown.

Verdict:

This has long been a favorite freezer meal of mine.  It is delicious, warm and comforting.

Next Time:

Just freezing the dough in a different shape.