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Spicy sausage and lentil casserole recipe

Posted by on Tuesday 18 January 2011 in cooking, recipes | 8 comments

Could a sausage and lentil casserole be anything other than spicy with us? We heart the spice!

I first made this when we were on holiday in a wonderful cottage in Staithes a few years ago so it always has connotations of relaxed cosiness – we’ve been there a couple of times out of season and had the quietest, most relaxing holidays ever. Recommend ++.

Anyway, back to the casserole, it’s a fab winter warmer – and can be pretty darn cheap if made with sausages on offer, as ours were when I made this on Saturday.


Spicy sausage and lentil casserole recipe

Makes 4 dinner portions
Cost £3-4 in total depending on sausage offers – ie, 75p-£1 a portion.

Ingredients

1lb of sausages – pork or veggie
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed (or 2tsp of puree)
100g ish of mushrooms, diced
1 or 2 peppers, diced
1 hot chilli, diced very finely (I used a scotch bonnet one when I took the pics)
250g of green lentils or puy lentils
500ml of hot veg stock
1tbsp of tomato puree
1tbsp of mixed herbs
A couple of bay leaves
2 splashes of Worchestershire sauce
Black pepper to season
A little olive oil

Method

1. In a large saucepan/casserole, fry the sausages in a little olive oil. It’s up to you whether you leave them whole or cut them into chunks – we prefer chunks (these are in thirds). The aim is to brown them rather than cook them all the way through so they don’t look so anaemic in the casserole.

2. Once they’re pleasantly browned, scoop them out into a dish and throw some – half a mugful – of water into the pan. Bring the water to the boil – it’ll remove the “sausage brown” from the pan and any chunks that got stuck. Pour the bits & water back into another bowl and retain.

3. Now the pan is empty again, heat a little olive oil then added the diced onion and garlic. Fry for two minutes.

4. Add the sausages, chunks of mushrooms, diced pepper and finely diced chilli. (You can, of course, leave out the chilli if you’d like a not-actually-spicy spicy sausage and lentil casserole ;) ). Stir through and fry for a minute.

5. Rinse the lentils thoroughly and add to the pan, along with the stock, bay leaves, herbs, black pepper, Worchestershire sauce and tomato puree. Stir through until everything is well distributed.

6. Bring to boil then cover & leave to simmer until the lentils are soft – about 45 mins. Stir occasionally and add more water/leave the lid off depends on the moisture levels.

When the lentils are soft, serve with veg and/or crusty bread. I don’t find lentils freeze/defrost that well but it lasts a couple of days in the fridge.

Other posts you might like:

spicy tomato and lentil soup recipeQuick Spicy Tomato & Lentil Soup recipe Spicy marrow chutney recipe butternut squash soupSpicy butternut squash soup recipe Spicy stuffing with chorizo recipe

8 Comments

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  1. Hazel
    19 January, 2011 at 11:35 am

    Sounds delicious and I have green lentils in the fridge leftover from last nights megadarra; sausages in the freezer and I bought mushrooms on Monday. Guess what we’re having for tea?!

    Reply
  2. Sausage King
    29 January, 2011 at 11:56 am

    This looks excellent, where do you get your sausages from?

    Kind regards

    Stephen

    Reply
    • louisa
      31 January, 2011 at 12:55 pm

      Hi Your Majesty,

      It depends – sometimes it’s a local butcher if we’re in an area with one (we live near a supermarket so there’s a dearth of local shops around here), sometimes it’s the farmer’s market, and sometimes, sigh, it’s the supermarket. We went on a sausage making course last year and loved the experience – so at some point when we get organised, we’ll make our own :)

      Reply
  3. Sausage King
    14 February, 2011 at 7:23 pm

    Let me know if and when you get round to making your own – would love to know how you get on.

    Kind regards

    SK

    Reply
  5. mary
    7 March, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    Just finished creating this……..excellent flavor! I followed the recipe except added 1/2 of white wine when I added the vegetables, before the broth. I also skipped the step of deglazing the pan. It was healthy, spicy and absolutely delicious on a cold, snowy afternoon. Thank you for sharing the recipe.

    Reply
  6. PipneyJane
    28 July, 2011 at 9:02 pm

    Hi Louisa

    Just had to tell you – made this for dinner tonight and it was scrummy. DH gave it the big thumbs up, too.

    Thanks for posting the recipe.

    – Pam

    Reply

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