Christmas Lima bean, fennel, and sausage stew

This week I planned on making some green lentils in mujadara for my weekly bean dish, but with the blizzard, we needed some hearty stew. I found this recipe in the Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Guide.

On the blizzard: Just before eating this, I measured 11 inches of snow. We have at least 3 more inches forecast. Charlie and I shoveled three times today and we’ll need to shovel again tomorrow.

The Christmas Lima beans are beautiful. I’m glad the recipe only takes half a bag so I can make it again!

I can’t find the recipe online to link to, so here it is:

I decided to pre-soak the beans even though this recipe didn’t call for it. It made the cooking a bit quicker.

I’m a fan of fennel. Nice to use it in this dish. For the carrots and celery, Amanda and Charlie chopped and froze and a bunch of packs from the CSA over the summer, so I used one that had leek in it, too.

Don’t skip the Parmesan rind. It was an excellent addition. Don’t toss them, save your rinds for soup!

Serve with some crusty bread and hot sauce.

I liked this recipe. It was easy to make and delicious. It only makes 4 servings, so to feed more or have leftovers you’ll have to double it. The beans held their shape in the finished dish.

We’ll definitely make this one again!