Daniel Boulud's Root Vegetable Cassoulet - modified

I am a big fan of Daniel Boulud's recipes, but I didn't think that the vegetarian root vegetable cassoulet which appears in Daniel Boulud's Cafe Cookbook would be all that great. It sounds maybe a bit thin. Anyhow, I was quite wrong. It is exceptionally good even if it is not, as Boulud himself remarks, a real traditional cassoulet. However, when I made it I had to change some things around (because one member of our family is very allergic to fennel as a vegetable, although not to fennel seed; and because tomatoes are out of season; and because I don't do bouquet garni in bags, etc). Here is my modified version.

Root Vegetable Cassoulet - modifed

2 c dried cannellini beans
3 T olive oil
1 small onion, cut in 1/4 inch dice
3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
salt, pepper
1 T tomato paste
2 canned (Roma) tomatoes, 1 diced and 1 cut in half
7 c unsalted vegetable stock (actually I used powdered chicken stock)
6 stalks celery, each about 6-8 inches long, peeled and cut into 3 inch lengths
6 small carrots, peeled and trimmed (each was about 3-4 inches long, but thick)
3 large turnips, peeled, trimmed and quartered
1t fennel seeds, ground roughly with a mortar and pestle
3 sprigs Italian parsley
3 sage leaves
2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 c bread crumbs
3 more cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/4 c more Italian parsley leaves, finely chopped
3 T unsalted margarine, melted

Unusual kitchen item: parchment (bake) paper, which will be used as a supplemental lid for the cooking beans and vegetables.

1. Soak the beans overnight, or do a quick soak. Rinse and drain them and put them into a large (heavy) pan into which you will later put the 7 c of stock and all the vegetables to cook on the stove.
2. In a small saute pan heat 1 T of olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and the first 3 garlic cloves, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion and garlic are tender but not (too) colored. The recipe says 10 minutes, but it took a shorter time for me. Stir in the tomato paste and then the diced tomato. Take the pan off the heat and reserve it for later.
3. Go back to your large pot (the one with the drained beans in it). Add the 7 c of stock and bring it to a boil (warm stock saves a lot of time here). Now add the celery, carrots, turnips, fennel seed, 3 sprigs of parsley, sage leaves and thyme - and bring back to a simmer. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit inside the pot. Put the parchment lid in the pot on top of the vegetables, beans and stock and press it down gently (don't let it get under the stock). Keep the heat as low as you can to maintain a low, steady simmer underneath the paper lid. Stir every now and then (I actually didn't stir at all). Cook about 1 hour or more until the beans are tender. (I simply stopped the cooking after an hour: the beans were a bit al dente which seemed okay). Season with salt and pepper shortly before the beans are cooked through.
4. Remove the pot from the heat, take the parchment lid off and throw it out, and drain the liquid into a bowl or pitcher. I poured the contents into a colander over a bowl to catch the liquid. Keep both the bean/vegetable mixture and the liquid. The recipe has you separating the vegetables from the beans at this point so that you can make separate layers of beans and veggies in the next phase. I didn't do that.
5. Preheat the oven to 400.
6. Make the crust: combine the bread crumbs, the second 3 cloves of garlic and the 1/4 of chopped parsley, then add the melted margarine. Mix up with your fingers until it is crumbly.
7. Get another pot, one that will go into the oven with the beans/vegetables. Probably this has to be a new pot because the previous one has had to be big enough for all the liquid as well. Put the beans/vegetables in the new pot. Gently stir in the reserved onion, garlic tomato mixture (remember it?). Gently stir in the remaining 2 T olive oil. Add just enough liquid to come just below the top of the contents. Sprinkle the crust mixture over all (it can make a fairly thick layer).
8. Bake in your preheated hot oven. The recipe says 12-15 minutes, but I think it could be longer - anyhow, you are looking for an appetizing browned crust.
9. Serves 6.

Note: the leftover liquid tastes great and should be kept as vegetable stock.
Note: this is not a long recipe to make, since pre-preparation (peeling, chopping, etc) is not long. Start to finish for me was about 2 hours, maybe a little over.
Note: fresh herbs (parsley, sage, thyme) are definitely worth it in this dish.