Braised White Beans, Sausage and Kale Stew
As the weather takes a cooler turn, there’s nothing quite like a comforting slow cooker dish. This stew is a hearty embrace of autumn’s arrival. It combines tender white beans, flavourful chipolata sausages, and nutrient-rich kale in a warming stew. With a touch of lemon, herbs and spices chilli, it’s easy, healthy and makes for brilliant leftovers through the week.
Start by sizzling the chipolata sausages in a large pan with some olive oil until they achieve a perfect golden brown. This step is purely optional. Unlike when slow cooking red meat, this step isn’t really about flavour. We just think sausages look more appealing when they are slightly browned!
In your slow cooker, combine the drained white beans, lemon juice, vegetable stock, a pinch of chili flakes, dried thyme, and minced garlic for a flavorful base. Let this mixture harmonize as it simmers gently. We use Bold Bean Co‘s big jar of organic white beans – which are haricot beans. They taste amazing, but have a bit of salt in them, so if you use them too we recommend using a low-salt chicken or vegetable stock, so the final dish isn’t over salted. You could also use any beans of your choice, such as butter beans, cannelini beans or even chickpeas.
As for the sausages, you can either slice them into bite-sized pieces and add them to the slow cooker, or keep them whole. If you want to keep the recipe vegetaria, you could omit them entirely and use a combination of different beans instead, or use a veggie alternative.
To serve
Approximately 10-15 minutes before serving, stir in the fresh kale, letting it tenderise and infuse the stew with its vibrant green goodness. To finish, garnish each bowl with grated Parmesan, a drizzle of olive oil, and a squeeze of lemon juice. We recommend serving your comforting stew with crusty bread.
Braised White Beans, Sausage, and Kale Stew
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
- Frying Pan for optional browning of sausages
Ingredients
- 500 g White beans drained weight
- 12 Chipolata sausages
- 3 cloves Garlic minced
- Juice of half a lemon
- 250 ml Chicken or Vegetable Stock ideally low-salt
- 1/4 tsp Dried chilli flakes
- 1/2 tsp Dried thyme
For later (and to serve)
- 100 g Kale
- Drizzle Olive Oil
- Squeeze Lemon juice
- Parmesan shavings
Instructions
- Optionally brown the chipolatas in a hot pan with a little olive oil.
- In the slow cooker combine white beans, chicken or veg stock, lemon juice, chilli flakes, dried thyme, garlic and chipolatas. Stir well.
- Cook for 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low.
- Add the kale, stir well and place the lid back on. Cook on high for further 10-15 minutes, or until the kale has softened to your liking.
- Spoon into a bowl. Drizzle over a little olive oil, add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and top with parmesan. Serve with crusty bread.
Nutrition
Nutrition note
Nutrition calculations only account for the ingredients stated in the slow cooker recipe. Serving suggestions such as rice and potatoes are not included. Remember to account for the nutritional values of anything you choose to accompany the recipe with.
Why not try?
Want a slow cooked sausage, but don’t fancy this one? Then take a look at our other sausage recipes here. Or for all our recipes, use our recipe finder to narrow down a recipe choice! You can also check out our YouTube page for all of our video recipes, including some longer form follow-along recipe videos.
