Hearty sausage stew with Swiss chard from chef and gardener Julius Roberts

Chef and smallholder Julius Roberts shares his recipe for a hearty and warming stew with sausage and chard.

Serves: 4-5

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Julius Roberts

Published: December 21, 2023 at 7:00 pm

This stew sits somewhere between a soup and a stew. As the beans cook, they relax into the unctuous broth, studded with rosemary, chilli and cinnamon for a soothing warmth. If you can find Italian sausages, they have a coarser texture and pleasing richness, but a quality British banger will do the trick too. We eat this on our knees by the fire with rain lashing against the windows. All it needs is a hunk of bread with butter thick enough to leave teeth marks.

Here's Julius' upside-down pear cake recipe

This recipe is from the book The Farm Table by Julius Roberts, with photographs by Elena
Heatherwick, which is published by Ebury Press, priced £22

Ingredients

500g Italian sausage
3 cloves garlic
2 celery sticks
2 brown onions
3 tbsp olive oil
pinch chilli flakes
Sprigs rosemary (or sage or thyme)
2 bay leaves
1 stick cinnamon
Small glass Madeira, sweetish sherry, beer or white wine
2 plum tomatoes from a tin
700g jar white beans (or 2 x 400g tins - I like to use cannellini and butter bean)
750 ml chicken stock
250g Swiss chard or cavolo nero

Methods

Step 1

Start by slicing the skin of the sausages so you can remove the meat. Then roughly break into small meatball-sized pieces. Finely slice the garlic, celery and onions.
Step 2

Get a large heavy-based pan hot, drizzle in the olive oil and, once warm, add the sausage. Fry for a few minutes to release the fat and get some colour on the meat. Then turn the heat right down and add the garlic, chilli flakes, rosemary, bay leaves and cinnamon. Don’t let the garlic take on any colour – this stage is about slowly infusing flavour into the oil, so you want a low heat and a gentle sizzle.
Step 3

When ready, pour in the Madeira to deglaze the pan – you can do this early, to cool down the pan if your garlic is beginning to colour. With a wooden spoon, scrape up all the goodness from the bottom of the pan, then add the onions and celery, and crush in the tomatoes. Season generously, mix well and cook on a gentle heat for 10-12 minutes, until the onions are sweet and wonderfully softened.
Step 4

Add the beans and pour in the stock. Bring to a gentle simmer, then cook for about 20-30 minutes, until the broth thickens and the flavours come together. Strip the stalks from the Swiss chard and chop into 2cm pieces. Add them to the broth and simmer for a few minutes, then add the leaves and stir through. Put the lid on, turn off the heat and leave for five minutes.
Step 5

When ready, remove the lid and have a taste. You might want to add a touch more chilli flakes if the warmth isn’t quite there, and more salt if the broth isn’t rich enough. Pour generously into bowls and serve with thick slices of lavishly buttered bread for dunking.

Julius Roberts

Julius Roberts is a first-generation farmer and restaurant trained chef, on a mission to live a self-sufficient life down on his family smallholding in Dorset, whilst also cultivating the finest ingredients, and cooking and eating the very best food.

Hearty sausage stew with Swiss chard from chef and gardener Julius Roberts

Ingredients

Methods

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

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Hearty sausage stew with Swiss chard from chef and gardener Julius Roberts

Ingredients

Methods

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

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