As weeknight family dinners go, this Weekday Weenie Bake ticks all the boxes: delicious, healthy, one-pot, make-ahead, kid-proof (with a side of ketchup, perhaps), and wallet-friendly.
Thank you to Sarah Huggins of (Cooking for) Kiwi and Bean for another healthy, family-friendly recipe to please your tiny little bosses and your inner gourmand. Sarah is a Belly Bootcamper, mommy of two, and lawyer by day, who whips up amazing but do-able meals for her family of four.
A few factors make this recipe easy on the pocketbook. For one, it uses inexpensive winter veg—stuff like potatoes, onions, turnips and carrots. For another, it’s super flexible, allowing you to make use of whatever veggies happen to be on sale or wilting in your fridge. And finally—the weenie factor! Sausages—even really high quality ones—are tasty and cheap. I buy organic ones at a mere two bucks a pop.
And lest you think that cheap food equals boring food—not so! This is veggies slow-roasted in sausage juices, people! Um, hello? So good.
For the make-ahead option, assemble the whole dish the night before, cover with foil and leave it in the fridge until you are ready to bake it. You may need to add 10 minutes or so to the cooking time if you are baking it straight from the fridge.
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WEEKDAY WEENIE BAKE
serves 4
- 4 to 6 of your favourite sausages (preferably additive- and gluten-free)
- 8 cups winter vegetables, chopped in one inch pieces (e.g. potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets or onions)
- leaves from 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 2. Put chopped vegetables into the bottom of a large casserole/baking dish. Stir in oil, thyme, salt and pepper and arrange sausages on top. 3. Bake for 30 minutes, flip sausages, then bake for another 30 minutes or so, until sausages are cooked through and vegetables are soft and starting to brown. 4. Stir in apple cider vinegar. 5. Serve with grainy or dijon mustard for dipping (ketchup for the kids!).