Sausage Pot



Sausage Pot with sweet potato mash and broccoli

We have been meaning to post about this dish for a while.  It is a classic simple dish for the slow cooker and has served us (Tim anyway) well for lunches.  It is also a very economical dish unless you have to use gluten-free sausages which on this occasion we did.
This recipe is taken from the instruction booklet we got with the slow-cooker itself and this recipe was the 1st thing we tried when we got it as a present last Christmas.  The booklet is quite old-fashioned and I wouldn't be surprised to see soup for instance listed as a single ingredient.  I suppose this should be frowned upon by the cooks among us but I think it is OK sometimes to cheat a little, especially when cooking comfort food like this.

Back then Fran wasn't eating gluten-free and it was quite easy to buy 750g of sausages as the recipe suggests.  These days however it isn't that easy.  We have had some sausages in the freezer for a few weeks after buying them at Marple Food and Drink Festival.  These were gluten-free and cost about £4 for 350g so we decided we would take a chance with the consistency on this occasion and keep all the other quantities the same except there was about half the meat.  This worked OK but we now have sauce left which we will try and incorporate into another dish at a later date.

Ingredients (as it should be)

750g of Sausages which is about 12.  (We used 350g of gluten-free)
2 Leeks (finely chopped)
2 Onions (finely chopped)
400ml Beef stock (We used Knorr gluten-free)
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce (We used gluten-free)
3 Tablespoons Chutney
3 Tablespoon of Plain Flour (We used gluten-free)
Oil
Salt and Pepper

What to do

In one large pan soften the onions and leeks on a medium heat in a little oil.  At the same time begin browning the sausages in a frying pan.   You may need to do this in batches if cooking the full 750g.

Then combine the sausages and veg in the large pan.  Add flour and stir until it has soaked up all the oil. 

Then gradually add the beef stock and keep stirring.  Add the Worcestershire sauce, chutney and season a little.  Transfer everything to the slow cooker and cook on low for about 8 hours.






As you can see from the (not very appetizing) picture at the start of the post we served it as a proper meal with sweet potato mash and broccoli.  This is a great dish for the freezer though and if you use the 750g of sausages as the recipe says you would make about 6 portions.  One lesson learned from previous attempts is not to use the cheapest sausages available as they tend to fall about in the slow-cook process.  We found own-brand but not value to be just about right.  To vary the dish slightly you could even experiment with different kinds of chutney.