If comfort can be found at the bottom of a black iron pot, it is this Smoked Deer Sausage and White Bean Soup recipe. Just think about it: tender white limas suck up the rich stock infused with smoky sausage and herbs and slowly simmer until they burst, releasing their starch to thicken the pot. Warming your hands cradling a creamy bowl of this soup is the essence of comfort.
Back to basics with a bowl of bean soup. (All photos credit: George Graham)
Bean there, done that! I cook a lot with beans of all kinds; red, black, green, or white, I love ‘em all. Basic bean recipes are cornerstones of our Cajun and Creole culinary heritage; Louisiana home cooks know their way around a bean pot.
Here on the blog (my cookbook, too), I’ve done recipes featuring beans, and there are times that I overcomplicate (self-confession here) something as simple as a bowl of beans. Now don’t get me wrong, I am quite proud of my tasty tour de force for a rich duck-infused cassoulet bean stew, a fried kale-topped shrimp and bean soup, and my red bean/mustard green combination. I urge you to try them all. But, with this recipe, I’m back to basics, baby.
Nothing complicated here, and except my sausage recommendation, you should have all the ingredients in your pantry already. The sausage makes the difference, and I’m hauling out my secret weapon—Rabideaux’s smoked deer sausage. The Daigle family at Rabideaux’s (RAB-a-dooz) based in Iowa (EYE-o-way), Louisiana (just east of Lake Charles) has a formula for adding smoke (oak is their wood of choice) to sausage that is nothing short of genius. Their pork version is my go-to gumbo sausage, and this deer sausage is the perfect blend for my soup pot.
Deer meat is quite dry, and Rabideaux’s product combines the fat content of pork sausage into the mix, and the result is a moist, smoky, flavor-filled ingredient. Of course, you can use pork sausage, andouille, or any other smoked sausage in this recipe, but I urge you to get your hands on some deer sausage.
Enough said about this recipe; let’s cook.
- 2 tablespoons bacon grease
- 1 cup diced yellow onion
- ½ cup diced celery
- 1 cup diced carrot
- 2 cups sliced smoked deer sausage or smoked pork sausage
- 1 pound dried large white beans
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 teaspoon Acadiana Table Cajun Seasoning Blend, see recipe here
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Hot sauce, if needed
- In a large cast-iron pot with a lid over medium-high heat, add the grease and sauté the onions until they turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the celery, carrot, and sausage, and cook for 5 minutes. Add the beans and enough stock to cover. Add the bay leaf, parsley, and rosemary, and season with Cajun seasoning and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat to simmer. Cover the pot and cook, stirring every 15 minutes to check to see if more stock is needed. Continue cooking until the beans are tender, about 1 hour total.
- Once the beans are done, and the soup is creamy, turn off the heat, remove the bay leaf, taste the soup, and adjust the seasonings accordingly by adding salt, pepper, and hot sauce, if needed.
- Serve in bowls with toasted French bread rounds.
Comfort in a bowl.
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