Pork belly and sausage cassoulet

Serves: 4 
Difficulty: Easy

We may be sensing spring in the air, but it’s not time to turn your back on the winter warmers yet. Cosy on up with this delicious recipe for pork belly and sausage cassoulet, served with a herb crumb and spring greens, courtesy of meal-kit company Hello Fresh. 

Ingredients

• Eight pork sausages 
• 3 carrots 
• 1 onion 
• 1 garlic clove 
• 5 sprigs of thyme 
• 1 bunch of spring greens 
• 2 pork belly strips  
• 1 tsp herbes de Provence 
• 400g can of butter beans 
• 1 Knorr chicken stock pot 
• 5 tbsp chopped tomatoes 
• 50g flat leaf parsley 
• 100g breadcrumbs

Directions

1Heat your grill to medium-high and place the sausage on a baking tray underneath the grill for 15 mins, turning occasionally, until nice and golden. Once cooked, remove, slice widthways to form ‘mini sausages’ and set aside.

2In the meantime, peel the carrots, chop off the ends, cut them in half along their lengths, repeat to form four long strips, then slice at ½cm intervals to create quarter moons. Chop the top and bottom ends off the onion, cut in half and peel, then thinly slice. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Pick the thyme leaves. Finally, cut the tough end off the bottom of the spring greens and roughly chop into 2-3cm chunks.

3Slice the pork belly rashers lengthways into 1cm lardons. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large ovenproof dish and cook the lardons over medium-high heat until crisp and golden. This should take about 10 mins.

4Now add the carrot and onion to the dish and reduce the heat to medium. Once the veggies have softened (about 8 mins), you can add the garlic, thyme leaves, herbes de Provence, a good pinch of salt and grind of black pepper. Mix together and cook for a further 2 mins.

5Drain and rinse all the beans and add them to the dish, together with 250ml of boiling water, the chicken stock pot and chopped tomatoes. Bring to the boil, stirring well. Simmer for 15 mins until some of the liquid reduces. If you have some red wine sitting you might like to add a good splash of this too!

6While the bean cassoulet is bubbling away you can prepare the herb crumb topping. Pick the leaves from the parsley and finely chop them. In a bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, chopped parsley, 2 tbsp olive oil, a good pinch of salt and grind a of pepper. Set aside.

7Carefully add your cooked sausages to the bean cassoulet, combine and top with the herb crumb topping. Place under the grill for 3 mins or until the topping is deliciously golden.

8Now for the springs greens. Put 1 tbsp oil (butter is even better if you have some!) in a large frying pan over medium heat, add the spring greens and a pinch of salt and sauté for a few mins until the leaves start to wilt. Take off the heat and serve with your sausage-bean cassoulet. Add a splash of water if things start to stick.