15 Bean Stew Recipe - With or Without the Crock Pot

15 Bean Soup is a classic that's inexpensive, filling, and tasty. But when you want to up your ante, 15 Bean Stew is what you really need to cook. It's so much more tasty!



This recipe is based on one I found over at 365 Days of Slow Cooking. My version has slightly different ingredients and I actually prefer to make it on the stove top. But you definitely can make it in a crock pot - and I've included instructions for doing so at the bottom of this post.

15 Bean Stew Recipe

1 (20 oz) package of 15 Bean Soup (you'll find it in the dried beans aisle)
Water
2 tablespoons dried minced onion (or 1 onion, diced)
1 tablespoon dried garlic (or 3 garlic cloves, minced)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoon chili powder
1 (6 oz.) can of tomato paste
1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes
Juice from one lemon (or 2 - 3 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice; fresh tastes better!)
Salt
Pepper 
1 lb. sausage

1. The day before you want to serve the stew, open the package of beans and set aside the flavor packet for later. Pour the beans into a pot and cover with 8 cups of water. Allow to stand overnight.

2. The next morning, drain the beans and return them to the pot. Add 8 cups of fresh water, the onion, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, and chili powder. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 2 hours, or until beans are tender.



3. Add the 15 Bean Soup seasoning packet*, tomato paste, tomatoes, and juice. Season with a little salt and pepper. Place over low heat.

4. In the meantime, cook up the sausage in a separate pan. I like to crumble it (like ground beef), but if you prefer to slice and brown it, that's fine, too. Once cooked through, strain off the fat and add the meat to the stew. Cover the stew pot and continue to cook on low.

5. Allow the pot to just barely simmer for about 2 hours. The longer it sits in the pot, the better it will taste. In fact, sometimes after barely simmering for a few hours, I put the whole pot in the refrigerator, reheat the following afternoon, and serve that night. This is when the flavor is at it's best!  



Crock Pot 15 Bean Stew Recipe

There are a couple of reasons I prefer to make this stew on the stove top. One is that this recipe overfills my crock pot, making some of the liquid sputter out while cooking. Those of you with larger crock pots won't have this difficulty. Also, this recipe takes quite a while to cook in a crock pot; for me, it's not practical, unless I soak the beans one night, cook the beans in the crock pot the next day, refrigerate them, then finish the stew in the crock pot the following day. Finally, I prefer to cook the sausage in a separate pan because this allows me to drain off the fat before adding the sausage to the stew.

1. The day before you want to serve the stew, open the package of beans and set aside the flavor packet for later use. Pour the beans into a pot and cover with 8 cups of water. Allow to stand overnight.

2. The next morning, drain the beans. Pour them into the crock pot and add 8 cups of fresh water. Add the onion, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, and chili powder. Cover. Cook on Low for 12 - 14 hours, or on High for 8 hours, or until beans are tender.

3. Add the 15 Bean Soup seasoning packet*, tomato paste, tomatoes, juice, sausage, and some salt and pepper. Cook on high for 30 - 60 minutes, or until the sausage is heated through.


* Yep, I know this seasoning mix has non-whole food ingredients. Anyone got a from-scratch equivalent?

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