Here in the UK it’s winter and quite frankly bloody cold and miserable! Perfect weather to be making my vegan sausage casserole recipe!
This recipe is healthy, cosy and filling and will warm you up on a cold day like today. The addition of the beans makes it filling and gives an extra boost of protein, in fact the whole casserole is high in protein (25.3g) because vegan sausages are generally quite high in protein anyway. If you’re looking to incorporate more high protein vegan foods into your diet check this article out.
If you’ve read my other recipes you’ll know I’m a fan of quick and easy recipes made with whatever I have in the fridge and this vegan sausage casserole is exactly that. Check these recipes out:
Once you’ve browned the sausages and cooked the onion and spices it’s then throw it all in a casserole dish and let it do it’s thing. You can change the sausages, the beans and the spices to create whatever flavour casserole you want, mine often depends on what I have that needs eating up in the fridge.
Vegan sausages
I’ve used a variety of different vegan sausages for this casserole recipe – plain, herby, caramelised onion. They all go really well. I haven’t tried a chorizo style vegan sausage yet but it would go well with a slight variation on the spices and veg. Lose some mushrooms and add some red pepper and you could add turmeric to the spices although they would all still work well left as they are. This would be more of a Mediterranean style casserole.
The sausages I’ve used in the recipe today are Tesco plant chef caramelised onion meat free bangers, but any vegan sausage would work. Two of these sausages are only 153 calories, compare that to pork caramelised onion sausages and you’re looking at 291 calories. That’s almost double! Not to mention the fat content, the pork sausages contain a whopping 20.7g of fat, that’s 30% of your daily recommended (based on the 2,000 calories a day average)! The vegan sausages contain a tiny 3.8g of fat which is only 5% of the daily recommended. Much healthier and a pig hasn’t been killed to feed you. If you’re thinking of going vegan but are on the fence have a read of this, you’ll fall straight off the fence right into the garden of vegan after reading it I assure you.
Adding beans to the vegan sausage casserole
Adding beans to the casserole really gives a lovely depth of flavour to the dish. I used tins of taco mixed beans for this recipe. These particular cans are a mix of kidney beans, pinto beans, cannellini beans, haricot beans and black eyed beans in a spicy tomato sauce. You could add any mix of beans you had though, or even just one type of beans. Chickpeas would also work.
Beans are a low fat, cheap and healthy way to bulk up a stew or casserole, beans are often high in fibre and protein making them perfect for a vegan diet.
If you don’t like beans just leave them out, the casserole will still be lovely with the flavour of the sausages and spices but it won’t be quite as thick and filling.
Ingredients for vegan sausage casserole recipe
Serves 2
Prep time – 10 minutes
Cooking time – 40 minutes
- 4 vegan sausages
- 1 teaspoon olive oil or coconut oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika. Or just paprika if you don’t have smoked.
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 – 1 teaspoon chilli powder, depending on how hot you’d like it
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced or finely chopped
- 400g can tomatoes
- 120g mushrooms, chestnut or button work well
- 150-200ml vegan stock, enough to almost cover the sausages
- 400g can mixed taco beans or beans of your choice
How to make your vegan sausage casserole
- Preheat oven to 200°c (400 f) or 180°c fan (350 f)
- Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the sausages and cook for about 5-7 minutes turning regularly. Once they’re browned place in a casserole dish and set aside.
- Add the onion to the pan (and a little more oil if needed) and fry over a low heat until soft, about 8 minutes.
- Turn the heat up to medium and add the spices and garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add the can of tomatoes to the pan, give it all a good stir and cook until the tomatoes are heated through. About 1-2 minutes.
- Add the tomato and spice mix to the sausages in the casserole dish then add enough stock to almost cover the sausages. They don’t have to be fully submerged in the stock tomato mix, up to half of three quarters cover is fine as the sausages will cook in the oven anyway.
- Cover with oil and cook in the oven for 20 minutes
- After 20 minutes add the mixed beans. Give it a good stir, put the foil back on then put back in the oven for another 20 minutes. If adding just beans and not beans in a sauce more stock might need to be added to stop it dying out.
- If having mash, cook your potatoes for about 20 minutes.
- Put your broccoli on to steam 10 minutes before the end of cooking
- Serve with mashed potato or quinoa and veg of your choice. I like steamed broccoli
To serve
The casserole will be filling as it is but you could serve with mashed potato, rice, quinoa or buckwheat. In particular if you didn’t add the beans.
Veg of your choice. Steamed broccoli, peas, carrots or cauliflower for example.
It might not look like the prettiest dish but it tastes damm good and it’s healthy. If you’re looking to lose weight on a vegan diet read this.
Nutritional values
1 serving
A 100g portion of broccoli on the side would add another 33 calories to the dish and a serving of mashed potato (about 170g) would add 180 calories.
| Calories – 437 | Protein – 25.3g |
| Fat – 8g | Fibre – 14.9g |
| Carbs – 61.3g | Sugars – 20g |
Alternatives
There are many alternatives you could use in this vegan sausage casserole recipe. To make it oil free grill the sausages instead or dry fry them and sauté the onion in a little water. If you don’t have a brown onion shallots or a red onion can be used.
Spices
Play around with the spices, add more of what you like the most and reduce what you’re not as keen on, or take it out completely.
Cumin – Can be replaced by ground coriander or garam masala.
Paprika – Can be replaced by cayenne pepper, but this will make it a lot more spicy. Reduce the chilli powder if you do this. Smoked paprika works a lot better with the beans than just paprika but either can be used.
Oregano – This can be swapped for a few different herbs. Parsley, thyme or basil would work as they go well with the tomatoes in the recipe. Or if you have a mix of dried herbs, Italian mixed or just mixed herbs. These would work as well.
Other ingredients
Tinned tomatoes can be replaced by fresh tomatoes or cherry tomatoes if you have them in and they need eating up. A pack of cherry tomatoes in Tesco is 350g which is about the equivalent to a 400g tin.
Mushrooms can be replaced by other vegetables of your choice. Red pepper, green beans, courgette (zucchini) or aubergine (eggplant) would all go great. For me, the mushrooms add a lovely flavour to the casserole but they’re not for everyone.
The stock can be replaced by more tinned or fresh tomatoes and adding salt to taste instead. Around 1/4 of a teaspoon, more could be added at the end of cooking if needed.
How do you like the sound of my vegan sausage casserole recipe? Have you made it yet? Let me know by commenting below, I’d love to know what you think.
Until next time
Katie
