Polish bean stew with cabanossi sausage or Fasolka po Bretonsku, a hearty and delicious meal for cold winter days.
I love beans! And sausages. And potatoes. This cabanossi sausage stew reunites them all in one pot. Quick to make, hearty and thoroughly delicious Polish stew.
Strangely enough, I know quite a few people who don't enjoy eating beans. I grew up eating lots of beans in Romania and I have quite a few recipes on the blog to prove it. 🙂
Have a look at these recipes that my grandmother used to cook all the time: the White Bean Soup, the Romanian White Bean Dip - Fasole batuta or Grandma's Bean and Vegetable Stew.
This is a Polish recipe, something we had for dinner in the hotel where we were staying during our holiday in Poland last year. Like I have mentioned above, I totally have a thing for beans, so unlike my kids, who could not see the point of having a bean stew in a hotel, I was particularly happy about it.
The recipe is very similar to a Romanian white bean stew recipe and maybe that was a reason for me to enjoy it even more, it reminded me of my childhood.
So, when we were back home, it didn't take long until I looked for a typical Polish bean stew recipe and cooked it myself. Actually, this was the first Polish recipe I have ever cooked, not a cake like this amazing Polish Bezowy Torte, but beans. Obvious to see where my priorities lie...
What do you need?
White beans:
- Dried or canned. If you have the time to cook the beans yourself it's great, I do it myself when I manage to remember to soak them in time.
- But as I am not always that organized, I do make this bean stew (or other bean recipes) with canned beans as well, and they are always delicious.
- Using canned beans saves the soaking and the long cooking time, meaning that you will have this dish ready to be served in less than an hour.
Cabanossi sausage:
- Also called kabanos or kabana, they are quite popular in Europe.
- They are Polish pork sausages, usually quite thin (but not always).
- The thinner sort are usually slightly drier, while the thicker are softer.
- I used the thicker ones to make the stew.
Smoked ham or bacon:
- You can use either ham or bacon, the only thing that's important for the flavor is that they are smoked.
Other ingredients: potatoes, carrots, onion, pureed tomatoes and tomato paste, spices.
Tips for making a good stew
- If using dried beans, remember to soak them overnight.
- Cook them properly. Most package instructions will tell you to cook the beans between 30 and 60 minutes. That rarely works, as the cooking time greatly depends on the size and especially the age of the beans.
- Start soon enough with the cooking process and check the beans regularly. They should be buttery soft, but not become mushy.
- If cooking the beans yourself, use the cooking water to make the stew. In this case, add 1 or 2 beef or chicken stock cubes to the dish, the beans` water is not as flavorful as meat stock.
- Most stews are best when reheated. If possible, cook the dish the day before you want to serve it. Keep it refrigerated and reheat before serving.
More warming stews?
Easy Potato Stew with Sausages and Vegetables
Gypsy Stew Recipe - Sah Hai Mas
Moldavian Pork Stew with Cheese, Eggs and Polenta - Tochitura
Stewed Sauerkraut with Meat Dumplings
Polish Bean Stew (with Cabanossi Sausage)
Ingredients
- 450 g/ 16 oz canned beans Note if using dried beans
- 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
- 1 onion
- 2 medium carrots
- 125 g/ 4.4 oz smoked ham or smoked bacon
- 250 g/ 8.8 oz cabanossi sausage
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 250 g/ 8.8 oz pureed tomatoes
- 250 ml/ 8.5 fl.oz/ 1 cup beef or chicken stock
- 3 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoons dried marjoram
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika powder optional
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- fine salt and pepper
Instructions
- Chop the onion finely. Chop the carrots into cubes or slices. Cut the ham or bacon into cubes as well. Slice the sausages.
- Heat the sunflower oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. Cook the finely chopped onion until translucent. Add the carrots, ham or bacon and continue cooking for about 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.
- Add tomato paste, stir well to coat the vegetables and sausages, then add the pureed tomatoes and the stock (or beans' cooking liquid + a stock cube), bay leaves, marjoram, both paprikas, allspice, sugar, and some salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil, turn the heat down to low and simmer the stew, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.
- Add the cooked beans and simmer gently for another 10 minutes.
- Adjust the taste with salt and pepper and serve the stew with bread and pickled vegetables.
Monica says
Looks delicious! I love beans of all kinds so this is right up my alley. I also love a rustic hearty dish like this that gets better with age. I wish I had a nice big pot of it!
Adina says
Thank you, Monica. I am craving it again. 🙂
Karen (Back Road Journal) says
My husband and I eat a lot of bean dishes and this does sound like a very good meal.
Adina says
It is delicious, Karen, so hearty and comforting.
Sissi says
You will never believe it, but I started to soak these beans this morning in order to cook fasolka po bretonsku tonight!!!
It's one of my favourite Polish dishes! Maybe also because these big beans are also my favourite among all the beans.
Adina says
Great, I love it too. Is your recipe similar to mine? I wanted to make this delicious Polish twarog spread today, I had it every day for breakfast in Poland, but could not find the darn cheese. 🙂 I have to look somewhere else.
Sissi says
It's more or less the same, but I always add dried marjoram, a very popular herb in Poland, which in my opinion goes perfectly with all the Polish pork dishes (sausages or cooked meat); I posted a recipe I use some time ago
http://www.withaglass.com/?p=12021
Do you mean the fresh cheese and chives spread ? My mum used to add radishes too (especially in spring!) and I love it this way too
http://www.withaglass.com/?p=9832
The funny thing is that in France one can buy the equivalent of this fresh cheese but made from goat's milk... no one has ever thought of making it from cow milk! Luckily I live close to French border and buy tons of goat cheese from a local farmer, at a Saturday market. Then I make this spread with goat cheese and it's fantastic (it would cost a fortune in Poland, haha!).
mjskitchen says
Look at that thick sauce with all those delicious ingredients. This is one of those soups you can just look at and know that it has a HUGE depth of flavors. Love it! Also, thanks for introducing me to cabanossi sausage. I've never had it before, so I'll be keeping an eye out for it.
Karin says
I am German, and until I started cooking beans (from cans) when I reached my teens and started on my culinary journey around the world buying all kinds of international cookbooks, I can't remember ever eating beans other than the green ones. I now own 3 regional German cookbooks, all about the South of Germany (south of Hesse), and not a single one contains a bean recipe. So I guess beans are just not part of our culinary tradition. I'll gladly give this one a go as the ingredients are easy to get and it looks and sounds mouthwatering, though it is up against hugeeee competition: despite my now decades-long history of cooking beans, I have never eaten a more satisfying bean dish than your Romanian white bean and vegetable soup. I can't currently imagine that this will change, but I'll more than happily add this one to my repertory of frequently cooked dishes. 🙂
Adina says
Wow, Karin, so nice to hear that you like my bean soup so much, we love it too. And I think you will like this Polish dish too, it is really hearty and satisfying. And it is true, the Germans are not much into beans or pulses generally, my mother-in-law never cooks anything with pulses, the only beans I have ever had in her house are green beans with Schmand. Just the other day, I met a neighbor in the supermarket complaining she has to find black beans and yellow lentils, which are not easy to find around here. She needed that for a Landfrauen-Meeting where they talked about the health benefits of eating pulses. Her conclusion was that "Who on Earth eats pulses anyway, I would rather stick to what I know!" Only Kopfschütteln!!!