Sausage & Butternut Casserole - one for Nanna!

As I expect you know by now, my Dad has been in hospital for heart surgery (and now is back home, doing brilliantly!)*.  So as to help out a little bit, we made a few meals that could be extended to serve four people and put one serving into a freezer box for my Mum.  Doing this just meant that when she came home from a potentially stressful day of getting to and from the hospital and visiting (because it can wear you out, visiting people in hospital!), she wouldn't need to worry about making anything good to eat.  She'd just need to get one of the dinners out of the freezer in the morning, then pop it in the microwave in the evening.  Done.

This is one of those "easy but yummy" meals.

I suspect that everyone has a Sausage Casserole recipe tucked behind their ear for the moment when nothing else will do.  My Sausage Casseroles always involve beans in some form or another - well, sausage & beans?  They're one of those matches like cheese & pickle, or chicken & stuffing!  I tend to make them as a true "one pot" dish that contains all the necessary protein, carbohydrate and vegetable in one.  However, it's a bit like Cottage Pie - everyone has their own ideas as to what goes into one and they all taste that little bit different.  In the case of Sausage Casserole, they all contain sausages and vegetables.  After that, the world is your oyster.

This version of Sausage Casserole, which was one of hubby's creations, involved using the other half of a Butternut Squash that didn't have a home to go to.  We'd bought some decent quality Cumberland sausages (Cumberlands are less herby, more black peppery and contain a good quantity of pork) and together with onion, celery, carrot and some green peas for colour, it made a lovely combination.

He also made use of one of the Stock Pots that Knorr had kindly sent us recently - a chicken version - which together with a teaspoon of tomato puree, some mushroom ketchup and a little thickening from a teensy touch of chicken gravy granules (don't faint - they have their place!) it made a lovely flavoursome gravy.

 

Mum broke this one out as the first of the "meals on wheels" as we called them and said it was delicious and just the job.  Inevitably, we'd packaged up far too much for one person - but as I said at the time, better to have too much than too little!

We ate the casserole with plain white rice, whereas Mum made a couple of potatoes to go with it - so the choice is yours.

Sept 2015 : I made this casserole again today, but jazzed it up a little bit as Mum wasn't going to be eating this one!  Not "jazzed" by much, but I added two sliced mushrooms, two cloves of finely chopped garlic, a tbsp of chopped chargrilled peppers in oil and a tbsp of chopped sundried tomatoes in oil.  Of necessity (because I didn't have the chicken stockpot), I used a Knorr Ham Stock Cube and a tsp of reduced salt Knorr chicken stock powder.

As you can see, I served the casserole with mashed potatoes this time and the clean plates all round were testament as to how good it was!  I really should make this one more often, as it really is a perfect autumn dinner.

* Updated since to say that in April 2015 he sadly passed away following a fall at home.

SAUSAGE & BUTTERNUT CASSEROLE  (feeds 4)

Ingredients :

8 Cumberland sausages
1 tbsp rapeseed oil (vegetable or olive oil would be fine)
1 onion, chopped small
1-2 sticks celery, diced small
1-2 medium carrots, peeled and diced into 1cm chunks
half a butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and cut into 1cm chunks
1 tsp tomato puree
a Knorr chicken stock pot (or 200-300ml chicken stock)
200ml water (leave out if you're using liquid stock)
1 tbsp mushroom ketchup or Worcestershire sauce
1 dessert spoonful of good quality chicken gravy granules
2 handfuls of frozen peas
freshly ground black pepper.

Method :

1.  Begin to heat a large wide-bottomed saucepan and add the sausages and oil.  Fry until the sausages are coloured all over, then remove and retain somewhere warm.

2.  Add the onion and fry on a gentle heat until transparent, softened and just beginning to colour - around 5 minutes or so.

3.  Add the celery and continue to cook until the celery has begun to soften.

4.  Add the carrot and butternut squash.  Cook gently and stir, until the vegetables are heated through.

5.  Add the tomato puree, stock pot (or liquid stock), water (if appropriate) and mushroom ketchup and stir to combine.  Bring up to a lively simmer.

6.  Cut each sausage into three or four pieces and add to the saucepan.  Again, stir to combine.  Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cover the pan.  Continue to simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the carrot and butternut squash are tender.

7.  Add the frozen peas and bring back up to a lively simmer.

8.  2-3 minutes later, if necessary, stir in the chicken gravy granules to thicken and freshly ground black pepper to taste.  Once the gravy is at your preferred consistency, serve.

Printable version

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Spicy Sausage Casserole

Impossible to make it look pretty - but it tasted a whole lot better than it looks!

Hubby and I seem to have been making Sausage Casseroles since God was a boy.  Even before we met, ye olde Sausage Casserole was on the menu and is probably as classic a recipe as Cottage or Shepherd's Pie.

The true glory of a Sausage Casserole is that no one is ever the same.  It is one of those dishes where just about anything goes.  Fabulous at using up leftover bits of vegetables, or being pimped up with spices or beans, it really doesn't matter what you put with your sausages (well, apart from blancmange - that might be a bit yuk) by way of vegetables or flavourings, it will be delicious.

I think everyone has a favourite "way" with a Sausage Casserole, mind you.  Some folk like theirs to be quite wet and broth-like, others like a hearty thick sauce.  We're certainly of the latter persuasion.

On the lovefood.com website, I tripped over a recipe from the Hairy Bikers, for a Spicy Bean Hotpot.  I liked the sound of the beans and spices, but the sliced potato topping was out because of the I-F diet that I'm on.  So I began to ponder on adaptations.  Their recipe was very bean-heavy, with no meat, so immediately I was wondering what meat would go well with it - and came up with sausages.  Because the addition of sausages would make the recipe then very protein heavy, I took out one form of bean (haricot) and halved the amount of the red kidney beans.

Everything else seemed to be well balanced, but I felt it just needed something extra to give another perspective whilst eating it.  Mushrooms were the obvious choice - and they went perfectly.

We ate the casserole just as it was, with no additional vegetables or carbohydrates (although I did include one or two leftover chipolatas) and it was lovely.  I'll very definitely be doing this one again, as it made a lovely warming and filling, satisfying meal to have on a cold night.

As with all Sausage Casseroles, you can include whatever vegetables you like.  Feel free to swap the sweet potato out for ordinary potato if you prefer, or add carrots, or parsnips - anything goes!


SPICY SAUSAGE CASSEROLE (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

6-8 tasty pork Cumberland sausages
2 small sweet potatoes, diced small
1 medium courgette, halved and sliced
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 medium onions, halved and sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed

4-5 chestnut mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

1 tsp chilli powder (or ½ tsp chilli flakes)

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp smoked paprika

400g can of chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato puree

2 bay leaves

200g can of red kidney beans in water, drained

1 tbsp cornflour, mixed to a paste with 1 tbsp cold water

sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.

Method :

1.  Place the sausages onto a baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180deg C/350deg F/Gas 4 for 25-30 minutes, or until browned.  Once done, remove and cut each into three pieces and reserve somewhere to keep warm.

2.  Heat the oil in a large non-stick saucepan or deep frying pan.  Gently fry the onions for 5 minutes, stirring often, until softened and lightly browned.

3.  Add the mushrooms, garlic, chilli, cumin and paprika.  Cook for 1 minute, stirring.

4.  Tip the tomatoes into the pan, refill the can with water and add this to the pan.

5.  Add the beans, tomato puree, bay leaves and sweet potatoes and stir to combine.

6.  Bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes.  Add the courgettes and bring the mixture back to a simmer.

7.  Add the cornflour paste and stir until the sauce has thickened, season to taste then add the sausages and cook for a further 3 minutes.

8.  Serve.

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