A recent discovery of mine have been gluten-free sausages. I’d always assumed that sausages usually being full of additives, rusk and goodness knows what else just were never going to be paleo friendly. Then I learnt that UK high street faves M&S and even Sainsburys have good quality ranges with a high meat percentage and no added bread crumb nasties. The ones I’ve used below are 97%pork, with a touch of seasoning, coriander and not much else!

Todays dish grew from wanting sausage and root vegetable mash but ended in a stew. There were no suitable root veggies in my greengrocers, and when I suddenly remembered about all the sausage stews Mum used to make when we were younger, and the cassoulets I’d tried in Toulouse last year I decided to buy a random selection of veggies instead and make up a stew for dinner and plenty for the freezer.  4 meals constructed in one evening’s cooking – brilliant!!

I found a basic stew recipe in a ‘hearty bowl food’ cook book and other than the time indications and the fact it contains sausages I don’t think I followed anything else. Was supposed to use cans of tomatoes but to my dismay there were none in my cupboard.  No matter  - I spent a few seconds contemplating a coconut milk sauce, but settled on making the sauce from a stock cube.  Perfect for an Autumnal evening.

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

• Olive oil
• Pork Gluten Free Sausages – I used pack of 8 / 454g
• 1 red onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 leek
• Pumpkin (approx 300g)
• 1 Courgette
• Button mushrooms (100g)
• 1 large tomato
• 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary
• 1 Tablespoon paprika
• 500mls vegetable stock (from an organic, low salt and wheat free stock cube)
• 1 Tablespoon tomato Purée
• 2 Tablespoons arrowroot
• 2 Tablespoons chestnut flour (optional)

Method

• Heat olive oil in a large saucepan.
• Cut up sausages into chunks (roughly into 3), sauté until browned and remove.
• Sauté diced garlic, onion and leek until softened.
• Add diced pumpkin, courgette, button mushrooms, tomato, rosemary, paprika and black pepper (no salt necessary as will be in the sausages). Stir for a few mins till veg begins to soften.
• Add stock and tomato purée, bring to the boil.
• Add the sausages back in and simmer for 30 mins, stirring frequently to avoid stew sticking to the bottom.
• Add the arrowroot and chestnut flour, stir well until dissolved (chestnut is optional I just chucked it in cos I thought it would go with the flavours and also help to thicken – which the arrowroot should already do).
• Simmer for another 10 minutes, spoon into bowls and eat.