These days, it’s getting very tiresome challenging thinking up dishes that Artie and Bea will actually eat! They were such good eaters as babies but with each new day (now 5 and 3) they get more picky. I persist in serving them decent meals with varied tastes and textures and ingredients, but I do now try and think ahead to make something more suitable for their palette every now and then.
This recipe is one such gem. And it went down very, very well. REJOICE!
God, the veggies dilemma. I need some veggies, as does my husband, so I can’t leave them out. No, I REFUSE to leave them out. But every now and them I try to cater a dish to their tastes – mainly so I can have an enjoyable meal without getting peeved at them. But also to try and help grow them into healthy human beings. I try and squeeze a few small diced veggies up that I think they may accept, like the carrot in this recipe. The beans add protein and at least I know they’ll eat beans – all varieties in fact, which is brill.
Sausages. What would we actually do without them?? But they are getting a bad press at the moment, along with bacon. Surely, isn’t it about moderation? Don’t eat bacon sandwiches every day (DAD!); ideally, try not to feed your kids sausages and chips every night. But once or twice a week is fine – and a bacon sandwich at the weekend or a few slices of streaky with pancakes and maple syrup – it’s what we live for in this house!
Enough rambling. Here’s how I made my sausage stew. Oh, I did mine in my faithful friend the Instant Pot, but of course you can make yours in a normal pan (it’ll just take a little longer). The times below are for a normal casserole pan, not pressure cooking. If pressure cooking then brown sausages, do the rest and simply pressure cook for 7 minutes.
Feel free to add other veg, maybe diced sweet potato, or sweetcorn? I served my stew with creamy mash (I put way too much butter, milk, and creme fraiche in but it was SO good!).
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of olive oil
8 thick pork sausages
1 onion, diced
2 or 3 carrots, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of mixed beans
1 small glass of red wine (optional)
2 tablespoons of tomato puree
1 beef stock cube (made into a paste with water first if pressure cooking)
Salt and pepper
To serve:
Mashed potatoes
Instructions:
- Brown sausages in a hot pan. Remove and set aside.
- Add onions, garlic and carrots. Soften for 5 minutes.
- Pop the sausages back into pan. Tip in glass of red wine. Let it sizzle a bit.
- Now the drained beans and tomatoes. Crumble beef stock cube in. Mix well. Pop lid on and simmer for 10 minutes or so. (If pressure cooking, make a paste from stock cube to avoid sticking to bottom, and pressure cook for about 7 minutes).
- Meanwhile make your mash.
- Serve. Try not to look desperate (in fact, go for nonchalant) as your angels tuck in. Inwardly whoop when they love it.
