Dr Mobeus
Sausage and Bean Casserole with Dumplings
A proper sausage casserole with dumplings is the kind of tea that makes a cold evening bearable. The sausages break down slightly as they cook, flavouring the tomato and bean sauce underneath, while the dumplings steam on top and go golden where the oven catches them.
The trick to keeping this under 50p a portion is using the cheapest sausages you can find. Aldi and Lidl both do packs of 8-10 pork sausages for under £1.20, and for a casserole where they are simmered in sauce, you genuinely cannot tell the difference between those and premium ones.
Butter beans are the quiet hero here. They absorb the tomato sauce and turn creamy without losing their shape, which makes the whole thing feel more substantial than the cost suggests. Tinned ones are about 65p for a 400g tin and you only need half the can, so the other half can go in a soup later in the week.
Sausage and Bean Casserole with Dumplings
Ingredients
Method
- Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Put a large casserole dish on the hob over medium heat with a splash of oil.
- Cut each sausage into three pieces and brown them in the casserole dish for about 5 minutes, turning occasionally. They do not need to be cooked through yet.
- Add the chopped onion and diced carrots to the sausages and cook for another 5 minutes until the onion is soft and starting to colour at the edges.
- Stir in the tomato puree and dried herbs, cook for a minute, then add the drained butter beans, chopped tomatoes and hot stock. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a simmer.
- Mix the self-raising flour, suet and a pinch of salt in a bowl with just enough cold water to bring it together into a soft dough. Divide into 4 balls and place them on top of the simmering stew.
- Put the lid on the casserole dish and transfer to the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the dumplings are golden on top.
- Serve in bowls with the dumplings on top. A slice of bread on the side is never a bad idea.
Tips and Variations
You can swap the butter beans for a tin of cannellini beans or baked beans if that is what you have. If you do not have suet, use cold grated butter instead with the same weight of flour. The dumplings will be slightly less fluffy but still good. For a slower version, put the casserole in the oven at 150C for 90 minutes before adding the dumplings, then add them and cook for another 30 minutes with the lid on.
