A Pot of White Beans, Sausage, and Broccoli Rabe + Cooking with Dry Beans

In the in-between times of winter and spring, I always crave warming dishes full of heartiness like beans, braised greens, and the like. Now that I live in San Francisco, those cravings still exist like a circadian rhythm. The weather in the Bay area has been warm, sunny, and clear, and yet I still approach March with suspicion that a blizzard is about to hit.

One thing I always had control over during the uncertainty that was early spring was cooking. There’s nothing like a soothing warm pot of something bubbling over the stove to make you sigh in relaxation. While I can walk around without a jacket on over here with a high reliability that won’t be changing anytime soon, I still find consolation in this. Enter said pot of white beans.

Honestly, I never touched a dried bean outside of a childhood homemade maraca until a few years ago when I made hummus to the tune of Ruth Reichl’s soothing writing. Then, I read this post on Smitten Kitchen and the romanticism of cooking an exquisite pot of chickpeas led me to a quarterly tradition. There is nothing quite like the simplicity of a pot of beans—especially considering the flavor is absolutely my favorite type of brodo.

There are a couple of tricks I’ve picked up from dry bean cooking. Consistency among beans while you’re heating them can be difficult. Some beans heat quickly and burst through skins while others take a bit longer to soften. That can be a bit of a mess. So I’ve written my favorite tips to tap into below for bean perfection.

• A long soak overnight rather than trying to cook them all at once. Water takes a long time to penetrate all the way to the center of a dry bean. If you try to rush, the exterior cooks before the center even moistens. There are quick cooking methods, but I’ve found that they’re never quite as satisfying, and the several hour soak can sometimes be a bigger headache than just setting them for overnight and forgetting about them for a bit.
• A long, gentle heating. A heavy pot with a heavy lid such as a Dutch oven spreads the heat and maintains it evenly throughout the contents. The oven instead of the stovetop for the primary cooking heats the pot from all sides and reduces the ‘hot spots’ you get from a burner. Of course, I like finishing the beans on the burner, but initial heating is most even in the oven.

• Salt. A touch of salt as a light brine during soaking adds a small amount of sodium ions to the water. The coating on beans is strengthened by pectin. The pectin in beans have building blocks that are also small ions. When sodium ions are introduced into the water, they end up switching spots with the native pectin ions and weaken the cell coating. That makes the bean coating more flexible so that it can expand as the centers cook without bursting. But be careful—too much salt can hinder the cooking of the bean’s starch and make it mealy. That’s why we’ll keep the percent quite low.
• Baking soda. As you know from when we spoke about soft pretzels and caramelized onions, baking soda increases the pH. An alkaline environment helps break down other building blocks in the bean coating—hemicelluloses. Breaking those down reduces the cooking time considerably. There’s an added bonus that the baking soda is sodium hydroxide and adds additional sodium ions like those from salt. But again, just like with the salt, too much baking soda can be a bad thing. It can cause unwanted flavors and adverse textures. So we’ll add just a little bit.

And that’s about it! If you’re cooking different styles of beans, there are different tricks, but this will do for us for now.

This particular bean recipe comes together as a meal with andouille sausage and broccoli rabe. If you’re just looking for a good pot of beans, stop at step nine. When you get there, test for doneness. Continue heating until softened to your liking and enjoy with additional cheese and perhaps a dollop of yogurt or burrata.

Speaking of cheese, one of my favorite ingredients to add while cooking beans is parmesan. I enjoy adding a rind of parmesan to the cooking brine. If your rind isn’t especially hard, it can break down nicely in this recipe to be chewy bits of salty parmesan dispersed through your meal. However, if you have an especially hard rind, there are two options. You can either use it for flavoring and remove it once the pot moves from the stove to the oven (see instructions below), or instead use a big chunk of the cheese itself. The cheese will be super flavorful and will definitely break down during cooking. As always, feel free to add more cheese whenever you want! (duh)

Another final note. I’ve used andouille here which is a fully cooked sausage. If you use a raw sausage, you must sear it separately before adding it at the end.

A pot of White Beans, Sausage, and Broccoli Rabe

Serves 3-4

Print recipe

1 cup dry white beans

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

Water

1 medium onion

2 large garlic cloves

1 bay leaf

1 parmesan rind or 1 large nub of parmesan cheese (see note above)

1 cup tightly packed, roughly chopped, broccoli rabe leaves

Two links (10-11 oz) smoked andouille sausage, sliced

1 lemon, juiced

1 tablespoon chopped parsley leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Pick through the white beans and remove any stones or bad beans. Rinse the beans and put them in a sealable container. Add the ½ teaspoon each of salt and baking soda to the container. Next, add water, covering the beans with enough water so that you leave enough space for the beans to at least double in size. I like to add two parts water in volume to one part bean volume.
2. Seal the container and place it in the fridge overnight.
3. The next morning, preheat the oven to 400F.
4. Dump the beans and the soaking liquid into a Dutch oven or a heavy, oven-safe pot with a lid. There should be enough liquid still that the beans are all submerged by the water. Add another half cup of water if needed.
5. Cut the ends off the onion and peel the outside off. Cut into quarters and add to the pot. Smash the garlic cloves and remove the papery skin. Add those to the pot as well along with the bay leaf and cheese rind (or shredded cheese).
6. Put the lid on the pot and place in the preheated oven. Cook for 45 minutes, stirring halfway through. If you’re cooking a larger bean like cannellini, increase this cooking time to 60 minutes.
7. After 45 minutes, remove from the oven and place on your stovetop. Take the lid off and set aside.
8. Put the pot on the stove over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and continue heating another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The beans should be softening nicely, and the garlic and onions should also be breaking down.
9. Add the broccoli rabe to the pot and stir in. You should still have a bit of liquid in the pot—if not, add a quarter cup of water. Continue to heat another 5-10 minutes, stirring more frequently. As you stir, the broccoli rabe and onions should be incorporating nicely into the beans.
10. After 5-10 minutes, test the beans to ensure they are soft enough. The liquid should also be mostly gone at this point. Cook another 5 minutes if needed. Add the sausage to the pot, along with the lemon juice and parsley. Stir it all together and put the lid back on the pot. Turn the heat off and let sit 5-8 minutes until the sausage is heated through.
11. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve!