Dinner Tonight: White Bean Cassoulet

I’ve gotten into the habit of preparing easy-to-reheat-or-assemble foods in advance to make the week a little easier. Since I only have to worry about pleasing myself at dinnertime, this leads to a lot of soup, salad and sandwiches. Once in a while, though, you want to feel like you’ve been fussed over a little. That’s exactly why, using this recipe and a package of grocery-store soup greens, I made a white bean cassoulet this week.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 c olive oil
• 10 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium white onion, diced
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 1 hunk butternut squash, peeled and diced
• 1 small red potato, peeled and diced
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 3 cups prepared white beans
• 2 quarts liquid (I used had veggie broth and half water)
• salt

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large stock pot. Sauté vegetables until tender.
2. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 45 minutes- 1 hour or so. Remove the bay leaf.
3. Serve immediately with fancy crostini (aka toast with hummus in my case) or pour into single-serving containers and freeze.

Do you have any favorite make-ahead recipes?