TODAY’S RECIPE: Slow cooker sausage casserole

DELICIOUS with pasta, a baguette or in baked potatoes. SERVES 4.

Ingredients

2 red onions, finely chopped

1 celery stick, finely chopped

1-2 tbsp rapeseed oil

4 carrots, cut into slices

12 chipolatas, halved 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks 400g tin tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 thyme sprig

1 rosemary sprig

1 beef stock cube

Method

1 Fry the onion and celery in the oil over a low heat until they start to soften, cooking for about five minutes, then spoon them into the slow cooker. Fry carrots and add them, too.

2 Brown the sausages all over in the same frying pan — make sure they get a really good colour because they won’t get any browner in the slow cooker. Transfer to the slow cooker and add the sweet potato and tomatoes.

3 Put the puree in the frying pan and add 250ml boiling water, swirl everything around to pick up every last bit of flavour and tip the lot into the slow cooker. Add the herbs, stock cube and some pepper. Don’t add salt until the casserole is cooked, as the stock can be salty. Cook on high for four hours or on low for eight hours, then serve or leave to cool and freeze.