Sausage and vegetable stew

I don’t usually give leftover vegetables a second thought. Leftover meat, yes, I can recycle with imagination. But vegetables? Most of the time, they are either already overcooked and, worse, falling apart. It happens when they sit in the hot sauce for a long time.

But I make an exception with root vegetables leftover from a meat stew. Potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes. Unlike more delicate vegetables (think leafy vegetables), root vegetables have a better chance of retaining their shape. And because they had soaked up the flavors of the meat and the sauce, they are delicious.

In this recipe, leftover vegetables and sauce from a pot of spicy beef kaldereta were simmered with lightly fried sausages and onions to create a new stew with a slightly different flavor profile.

How does the new stew have a different flavor? Sausages are flavored differently. Some are spicy, some are sweet, others are oozing with garlic… Take your pick. Once you have, then, you’ll have a good idea on what the final flavor of your new stew will be.

Whatever sausage you choose, you’ll need to cut them into bite-size pieces before lightly frying them in butter to give them better texture. If your chosen sausage is on the spicy side, you might want to temper the heat by adding sweet onions during the frying stage.

While your sausages fry (and the onions soften), reheat the vegetables and sauce from your leftover stew in another pan. Do this over low to medium-low heat to avoid overcooking the vegetables. Reheating over low heat also reduces evapotation which can make the sauce dry up.

Once the sauce and vegetables are simmering, dump the sausages (and onion, if using) with all the drippings into the pan with the leftover vegetables and sauce. Stir to distribute the sausages.

Simmer for a few minutes. Not too long because all the ingredients are already cooked through. You’re just simmering everything together to allow the flavors to blend.