Sausage Casserole & Colcannon

To celebrate St. Patricks day I put my mind to making a vegan version of the Irish dish Colcannon, which traditionally contains ham or bacon. After a few different trials I decided on this version I'm sharing with you today. The mash was creamy and had some texture thanks to the cabbage. To replace the saltiness that you would get with the traditional meat version I replaced the ham with celery and a little white miso.

To make it different still I managed to pick up a purple savoy cabbage from the farmers market, it almost looked too pretty to cut into! The recipe is very easy to prepare and one that I will come back to time and time again.

I needed something just as tasty to pair with the Colcannon and I decided on sausage casserole. Regular readers know I'm not a massive fan of 'fake meat' but I was pleasantly surprised with this dish. As I hate food waste the casserole I created was based on ingredients that needed using up in my fridge, leeks & tomato passata, but partnered with some fresh herbs from my garden a tasty morsel was born!

I decided to share the recipe with you a few days early in case you want to celebrate St. Patrick's day with these dishes, if you do, I hope you enjoy and happy St Patrick's day!

Ingredients - Serves 4

Colcannon
600g Potatoes
2 Tbsp Vitalite (heaped)
3 Celery sticks, finely diced
½ Red Savoy cabbage, cored & sliced
2 Tsp White miso
Salt & pepper to taste


Sausage Casserole
8 Vegan sausages ( I used Linda McCartney)
3 Leeks, sliced
2 Sprigs fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 Tsp Dried thyme
1 Tbsp Flour1 Kallo Mushroom stock cube
500ml Boiling water
250ml Tomato passata

Method
Colcannon
Peel and boil the potatoes until tender, drain and roughly mash. Add the vitalite and mash until smooth. Add salt & pepper to taste.

While the potatoes are cooking fry the celery in a little olive oil for 3-4 minutes, you're looking to cook the celery but still with a bit of bite.

Add the cabbage and stir fry for another 3 minutes. Add the cabbage and celery to the mashed potatoes and stir to combine thoroughly.

Add the white miso to the potato mix and stir to thoroughly combine.

Sausage Casserole
Place the sausages in an oven proof dish and bake for 15 minutes in a moderate oven. You don't want to cook them completely, but give them a little head start. 

While the sausages are in the oven saute the leeks in a little oil for 5 minutes. Add the fresh rosemary, dried thyme and flour, stir to combine thoroughly and saute over a low heat for another minute.

Add the mushroom stock cube to the 500ml boiling water and stir to dissolve. Slowly pour a little at a time over the floured leeks and stir to make a sauce. Add the tomato passata and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and cook for 5 minutes.

Pour the sauce over the vegan sausage and bake for 20 minutes in a moderate oven.

Serve with the colcannon and a few garden peas.