I had been working on getting recipes ready to post, then Lent hits...NO MEAT! Hubby has decided to forgo meat the entire 40 days, not just Fridays, so that means a lot more meatless dinners in the mix. I think this will be a good thing for our family, it'll at least force me to expand my repertoire. With that in mind, here's what I made for dinner last night.
 |
| Shrimp & White Bean Cassoulet |
Back in the days before Pinterest, I used to rip recipes out of magazines and then tried to organize them in a binder (not very successfully I might add, I just ended up with a stack of folded magazine pages shoved in said binder) This recipe is from one of those pages, and since I ripped it out I'm not exactly sure where it came from, but thanks to the wonder of the internet, you can find the original recipe here. I also doubled the recipe so we would have leftovers because the first time I made it we ate the ENTIRE thing, so if you are making this for 2-4 people halve the ingredients.
3-4 large leeks white and light green parks only sliced thin
5 cloves garlic minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (a couple of good shakes)
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 lb uncooked small/medium shrimp peeled/deveined ( I used the Costco bag of frozen shrimp defrosted and removed the tails myself)
4-15 oz cans white beans ( I used Great Northern Beans)
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 cup white wine (you could use more chicken stock instead)
1 1/2 cups chicken stock or broth.
A handful of fresh parsley chopped
1/2 cup seasoned breadrumbs
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375. and lightly spray a 2 1/2 quart casserole dish with Pam.
Slice the leeks and place in a bowl of cold water to rinse, swish them around a couple of times to separate into rings and remove the sand. Meanwhile mince the garlic. If you sprinkle a bit of salt on the cloves and the cutting board they won't stick as much (saw this on Food Network-Thanks Sandwich King!)
Place a pan on medium heat on the stove add the olive oil-a couple of turns of the pan.
then add the garlic and red pepper flakes
Drain the leeks and then add them to the pan too. Cook on medium heat until softened, watch the heat you don't want them to brown. while the leeks cook, prep the shrimp if they are larger you might want to cut in half. Once the leeks have cooked down they will look like this.
At this point add the shrimp and the chopped parsley (save about a tablespoon or so to add to the breadcrumb topping later on)
Stir everything together to combine and cook until the shrimp are just beginning to turn pink. then sprinkle the flour over everything in the pan then add the white wine (a couple of glugs) stir to combine again.
while this cooks, open drain and rinse the white beans, then add them to the pan.
Stir it all together and then pour the chicken broth over the top and bring it all to a nice simmer. It really smells heavenly at this point, season with additional salt and pepper to taste if needed.
While pan comes to a simmer, prep the breadcrumbs. I like to combine seasoned with the panko, seasoned for flavor and panko for crunch. I also add some of the fresh parsley for color and either olive oil or melted butter (1 tablespoon) to help the breadcrumbs brown. Make sure to stir well so that all the breadcrumbs are coated with a bit of the oil.
Carefully pour the shrimp and bean mixture into the casserole dish and then top with the breadrumbs.
Place into preheated 375 degree oven and bake until the top is toasted and golden brown and the casserole is bubbling and hot throughout about 20 minutes or so. I used this time to throw together a quick green salad to serve alongside.
This is absolutely yummy, delicious, comfort food on a cold day. It is also relatively low in calories. I am currently using the my fitness pal app and after inputing the recipe I was happy with the calorie count, only 383 calories per serving!
