Life has been action packed lately. Its been all go around here. With limited available time our dinners have needed to be easy and involve as little prep-work as possible. Enter the slow-cooker.
I do love my slow cooker but don’t make nearly as much use of it as I should, and certainly don’t use it very much during the warmer months. But being able to prepare a meal that gently cooks away all day while I focus on other things is just what I needed.
And the smells that greeted me when I walked in the door after a long day were wonderful. These slow cooker sausages with tomato and fresh herbs were put together using what ingredients we had in the house and turned out beautifully. Easy to prepare and then left gently cooking in the slow-cooker all day, its delicious served with a loaf of warmed ciabatta or even steamed couscous.
Using pork sausages, fresh tomatoes and chicken stock meant the end result was lovely and light and didn’t eat like a traditional heavy casserole. It was ideal for an early Autumn dinner served with crusty bread. Substituting beef stock, using beef sausages and serving with mash instead would make this lovely casserole heartier for the colder months.
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Cook time:
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Serves: 4
- 8 fresh thick sausages
- 2 carrots
- 1 brown onion
- 1 leek
- 3 cloves garlic
- 3 rashers streaky bacon
- 1 tsp mild indian curry powder
- 500g fresh red or yellow cherry tomatoes, or if unavailable use 1 400g can cherry tomatoes
- 1 sprig each of fresh rosemary, sage, oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 tbsp worchestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- 1 400g can butter beans
- Peel and slice the carrots into half centimetre rounds. Peel and slice the onion into chucks of roughly the same size as the carrot. Wash the leek and slice into half centimetre rounds. Peel and finely slice the garlic and slice the bacon into half centimetre strips.
- Warm a frying pan over a medium heat and cook the sausages for 3-4 minutes on each side until nicely browned. Place into the slow-cooker. Into the same frying pan, add the bacon and onion and cook gently for 5 minutes. Add the carrot, leek and garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle over the curry powder and stir through then transfer the contents of the pan into the slow-cooker with the sausages.
- Add the tomatoes, fresh herbs and bayleaf to the slow-cooker and stir to combine.
- Pour the stock into the frypan and add the Worcestershire sauce, white wine vinegar and maple syrup. Warm gently. Pour over the sausage and vegetables in the slow-cooker, place on the lid and cook on High for 4 hours or Low for 7-8 hours.
- Butter beans will break down if cooked all day in a slow cooker, so 30 minutes to an hour before serving, drain and rinse the butter beans and stir these through the casserole.
- Serve with crusty bread, steamed couscous or buttery mash to soak up all the delicious juices.
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