Everyday Cassoulet-Fantastic

I love cassoulet. After I read Julia Child's recipe, I was delighted to learn all about it. Though inspirational, I've never made her recipe because it's so involved. I tasted two authentic cassoulets in France and both were hearty, plain, and delicious. I developed an everyday version that uses simple ingredients.

Soak 2 lb.s Great Northern beans in warm water with whey or lemon juice. Leave overnight. I like to rinse them once during this time, like early in the morning before I cook them. I think it makes them digest easier.

Boil a kettle of water to precipitate as much calcium from hard water as is possible. Pour boiling water over the drained beans and simmer for about 20 minutes. Drain again and pour more pre-boiled water over the beans and simmer for 2 to 3 hours until tender.

Prepare the chicken by cutting into pieces and then make stock out of all the bones. You will need this to pour over the bean-meat mixture.

Roast chicken pieces in the largest Le Creuset casserole you have. I added Italian sausages (no nitrate) and a piece of fatty bacon (no nitrate) too. Drain the beans when cooked and pour over the meats with 2 bay leaves. Add a can of diced tomatoes and about 2 T. tomato paste. A tiny amount of paste is best. I keep extra tomato paste in globs in the freezer. Add un-refined sea salt. Pour the chicken broth over the mixture until you can see the liquid. Add more water to the bones and keep them cooking for even more broth for future cooking.

Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

Remove the lid and bake 20 minutes longer. I let this cool down in the oven after I turn it off. The skin that forms makes the broth delicious.

Let this casserole cool down a bit before serving. This is a dish where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It's not authentic cassoulet but what a fabulous flavor it has.

French School Lunch

Check out this link to find out what the city of Lyon is scheduling for their children's school lunches.

Lentil Salad with Dry Land Cress

I cooked some lentils in my crock-pot after soaking them overnight to remove the phytates. I drained them well and added:

Olive Oil
Lemon-juice of one
Sea Salt
Spring Onions
Lacto-fermented carrots, chopped

As a side, I cooked some dry land cress like this:

Saute 2 strips of nitrate-free bacon
Toss into pan, 2 heads of chopped dry-land cress (I got this at the farmer's market)
Saute the cress until limp and slightly cooked.

I actually put both of these together on top of a fresh bib lettuce leaf.

This is a delicious cold or slightly warm salad. For lunch the next day I took more lentils and seasoned with balsamic vinegar, onions, salt, pepper, and olives and topped with slices of avocado coated in vinegar.

It's fast food if you have the lentils already cooked and in the fridge unseasoned. This way you can get them out to make a salad, stew, or soup.