Last week, my friend Kelly joined us for dinner. She came over to chat world domination (more accurately, leaving her job to take a sabbatical!), but she also happens to be a Mission: Dinner subscriber and fan.
When she tasted our meal — juicy Italian sauces in tomato saucy beans — she said something to the effect of, “Wow! Another banger! You’re so good at this!”
The only thing was…it wasn’t my recipe!
So after a minute of basking in her praise, I came clean.
That night, I cooked something I adapted from The Modern Proper cookbook. The authors, Holly Erickson & Natalie Mortimer, write recipes for downright craveable dinners. They’re not always five ingredients nor are they always super fast. Still, I’d call them easy, and I highly recommend the book.
BUT their recipe, which they call Weeknight Sort-of-Cassoulet, did inspire this one. (P.S. Neither my recipe nor theirs recipe is really anything like the long-baked, meat-and-bean-rich French dish, cassoulet.)
For this vegan version, you toss some carrots slicked with olive oil in smoked paprika and salt, then brown them until they become blistered and smell toasty. You then combine canned white beans with your favorite marinara sauce (I’m partial to Rao’s) and a little more smoked paprika and bake the whole thing together for a short while.
Ideally, you want the carrots to become just tender enough so they feel satisfying to cut and eat with a fork and knife. To get them where you want them in a mere 15 to 20 minutes of baking, start with skinnier carrots — about ½ inch in diameter at their thickest part. If you can only get fat carrots, halve or quarter them lengthwise.
The dish is tasty and satisfying as-is, but you can dress it up in so many ways: With a sprinkle of salty cheese or tender herbs. And, of course, with a bit of crusty bread on the side to scoop up the beans.
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