What's for Dinner? Turkey Sausage Cassoulet

This one was a bit of surprise as to how good it was. It's also another one that I did not feed the kids. They don't like the orange stuff quite as much as I do. It turned out very good. As usual my adjustment are written in.

Turkey Sausage Cassoulet from Fitness Magazine

Ingredients
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil ( I only used 1 to cook the onions)
2 shallots, minced (I didn't use these at all)
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
Pinch salt plus more to taste
4 uncooked turkey sausage links ( I used 4 servings of Hillshire Farms Lite Sausage)
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed
2 cups butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup organic low-sodium vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped (I used dried but wish I had used fresh)
1 16-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup whole-grain panko bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add 2 (1) tablespoons of the oil and the shallots, onion and pinch of salt to the pot; sauté 5 to 10 minutes and then turn off heat.


2. In a small pan, cook the sausage until browned, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Remove from pan and set aside; once cool, slice into 1-inch pieces and add to onion mixture. (I cut mine up first and if next time I will cut it into smaller pieces I think)



3. Add the sweet potato, squash, vegetable broth, thyme, sage and beans to Dutch oven; stir. Now the recipe never said to mix in the sausage and onions...but obviously I did. :)

4. In a medium bowl, mix the panko, Parmesan and remaining olive oil;(I did not use this olive oil but did spray some on with my mister) season with salt and black pepper to taste and sprinkle over sausage mixture. Cover and bake 30 minutes. ( I think it could have baked for another maybe 5-10 minutes as some of the pieces were not quite done or maybe I need to be more careful about getting all my pieces the same size)Uncover and bake 15 minutes or until topping is golden brown. Serve.

Next time I may leave off the topping too if I'm just making it for myself. While it was good right out of the oven when reheated I really didn't notice so I could skip the extra calories.



As I said surprisingly good! I'm hoping (and don't see why it won't) that it will freeze good. I love having my freezer stocked with soups and thing I can grab easily for lunch.


Edited to add:
Michael reminded me that I actually meant to add that I thought it would be good as a side dish, or vegetarian, without the sausage.