Baked curried sausages (vegetarian)

Few of my recipes have been the subject of so many repeated attempts than these baked curried sausages over the past few years.  Curried sausages is something that all my family loved when I was a kid. Actually my mum still makes them.  She says we all love them so much she could serve them for our Christmas dinner, when we have high expectations for the best meal of the year!  Hers are more less fussy than mine - onion, meat sausages, water, tomato sauce, curry powder.  Of course, mine are vegetarian now.  And I add lots of vegies. 

I have added sausages to curries before but I got the idea of baking a curry (to make it totally non-traditional) from Jac at Tinned Tomatoes who has lots of great sausage bake recipes.  I kept notes on my attempts at baked curried sausages and the first version seems to date back to 2017.  I think it is the above photo.  My brief notes on this version said that the roasting tin was too crowded.

Earlier versions were quite edible but just not quite right.  The sausages needed more baking and browning.  I also have notes - perhaps on the version in the above photo - saying that the sauce was too thick due to too much pumpkin and too much cornflour.  It seemed to work better last year when I didn't have much pumpkin in the fridge but the sausages still needed more time to crisp up.  I am not sure why in an earlier versions, I have listed "1 tomato, if not mouldy".

When I had another go at baked curried sausages this month, I felt like I had hit the jackpot.  Previously I had added sausages at the same time as the vegies but it worked better when I baked the sausages with onions before adding the other vegies.  I was really pleased that the sausages had some crisp edges and there was a good consistency to the sauce.

I really loved this way of making curried sausages.  My only improvement would be to add more sausages but I think the amount I used was ok, and I loved having lots of vegies.  I have tried lentils and chickpeas in the past but I think the cannelini beans were the best.  The vegies can be changed around but I really like how the pumpkin breaks down into the sauce.  We always had sausage curry with rice but I had seen some who serve it with mashed potato.  

If you are working from home, as I am right now in lockdown, this is a great meal to put on early and let gradually cook as you work.  Or it would be a good meal to make on a lazy weekend.  And if you fancy having this for Christmas dinner ... well, you could do a lot worse!

More non-traditional curry recipes in Green Gourmet Giraffe blog:
Banana curry (gf, v)
Beetroot, greens and chickpea curry (gf. v)
Chickpea, peach and pumpkin curry (gf, v)
Sausage curry casserole (v)
Watermelon curry (gf, v)

Baked curried sausages
An original Green Gourmet Giraffe recipe
Serves 4

3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped into wedges
5-6 vegie sausages, chopped in wedges
300g (small wedge) of pumpkin, peeled and chopped
1/2 large red capsicum, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
2 cups water
400g tin of cannelini beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup of sultanas (or 1 cup frozen green peas)
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp vegetable stock powder
1 tsp seeded mustard seeded (or chutney)
1 tomato, chopped
1 tbsp cornflour
seasoning
Rice, to serve

Preheat oven to 220 C.  Toss onion and sausages in oil in a large roasting tin.  Roast for 10-15 minutes as you chop the vegetables (about 1 inch chunks).  Add pumpkin, capsicum, zucchini and pinch of salt.  Stir and roast about 35 minutes or until edges of vegies is crisp.  Mix in water, cannelini beans, stock powder, curry powder, mustard, tomato and cornflour.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Serve with rice.

NOTES: Change the vegies if you wish but I recommend the pumpkin which helps thicken the sauce.  Cannelini beans are quite similar to the beans in baked beans.  Leftovers are good but the sauce will thicken overnight.  I used Vegie Delights sausages.  These are vegan but if you wish to make it gluten free, these sausages aren't GF.

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