One Pot Instant Pot Sausage, Beans, & Potatoes

One Pot Instant Pot Sausage, Beans, & Potatoes

Hey local food eaters,

This summer, we did a few things in our house. Just a few 1860s farmhouse renovation projects that (as usual!) turned out to take more time, work, and money than we expected! We put in a ceiling downstairs, complete with actual lighting. No more bare rafters with brooder lights and extension cords clipped here and there. This was my (Anna writing here) goal for a long time, as our house has limited windows and tends to be on the dark side. The dark wood rafters and exposed floor boards contributed to the dark feel, and as I hoped for, the white ceiling has brightened it up a lot in our house! Prepping for that project required me to pack up and cover all of our belongings as if we were moving. Drywall makes a LOT of dust and mess! After the painting was done, we decided to give the floor another go. This was Brooks’ THIRD time sanding and finishing the downstairs floor, and the third time was the charm - the floor is now smoother than it has ever been, which means no more splinters in our bare feet all the time. And it looks nicer too. 

While this was going on, we moved our slightly broken stove out onto the porch, since we couldn’t cook in the house. One week of using a propane camp stove outside turned into two, turned into three.... Even after the house was not full of dust and construction equipment, we continued cooking outside because we decided that instead of buying a new stove, maybe it would be fun to fix up a hand me down commercial stove to use as our new stove (6 burners! Yes please). A few weeks passed with slow progress, and cooking outside was getting old. When school started, the options were either outside fire cooking, or an electric griddle, toaster oven, or Instant Pot inside. 2 Instant Pots later, (turns out you can’t pour liquid directly into the IP without an insert, my kids learned the hard way!), I have been getting a lot of experience cooking in the Instant Pot. This thing has really kept us going.

My favorite weeknight go to meal in the IP is this sausage dish. It is quick, easy, and yummy. And healthy. The absolute pinnacle of what I look for in a meal!

I first started making it with Lincolnshire, which is delicious. To mix it up, I have used Spanish chorizo, and sweet Italian (sometimes varying kind in the same pot… ), and it always is a crowd pleaser. Carrots and onion are optional, I’ve done it without in a rush, but they add extra color and flavor. You could also throw in chopped tomatoes, peppers, or whatever CSA stragglers are around (turnips and beets - I see you in the bottom of the drawer). I use a mix of green and yellow beans if I can find them, for the prettiness aspect. Sitting and breaking the ends off the beans is the most time consuming part of this dish, but I find it kinda meditative and enjoyable, and a great task to include kids. 

Instant Pot One pot Sausage Beans & Potatoes

2 lb sausage (lincolnshire, spanish chorizo, or your favorite)

A good amount of green beans, ends broken off (sorry I don’t have an exact quantity here!)

5-6 medium potatoes, cut into about 1 inch chunks

1 cup broth or water

Optional:

1-2 carrots, diced

1 onion, diced

Fresh herbs to finish: parsley, thyme, rosemary are great

Rinse the beans, break the ends off, and break the beans in half, dropping them into the instant pot insert as you go. Next, chop and add the potatoes, carrots, and onion. Open your sausage packages, and using a sharp knife, slice 2 at a time into 4 roughly equal chunks. This can actually be done easier when they are partially frozen. Place these on top of the vegetables. Pour in a cup of liquid, either broth if you have it, or water. Mix the whole shebang, and make sure that it doesn’t go over the fill line for pressure cooking. I’ve increased this recipe to 3 lbs sausage and lots more beans and potatoes and it still fits in a 6 quart IP, if you press it down a bit. Place the lid on securely, turn the pressure valve back, and set to high pressure 5 minutes. 

That’s it. 

I generally leave it to natural pressure release for as long as I can, but it is OK to quick release. Fresh chopped herbs are a beautiful addition at the end, and maybe your favorite hot sauce.

The leftovers are a bit stewy/soupy, and could easily be morphed into a soup.

Enjoy!