This hearty sausage and bean hotpot is the ultimate winter meal. It's an easy one-pot, no-fuss dinner that makes everyone happy.
⏳
95 minutes
👪
4 servings
🍎
847 kcal/serving
Bookmarks
- ❤️ Why I like This Sausage and Bean Hotpot
- 📃 Ingredient Overview and Easy Substitutions
- 👪 Yield/Portions
- Hands-on Time and Recipe Difficulty
- 📷 How to Make Sausage and Bean Hotpot Step by Step
- 🍎 Nutritional Value in my Sausage and Bean Hotpot
- 💡 How to adjust the Recipe (Vegan, Gluten-free)
- Storing
- Reheating
- Recipe Summary
- Recipe Card
Who doesn't like hearty food, especially this time of year? One of the comfort meals that are super popular with my family is Sausage Casserole by the Hairy Bikers. You can find the recipe review together with a few handy tips in our post Hairy Bikers' Sausage Casserole/Tried and Tested.
The meal is a real winter gem, but it makes you spend a fair amount of time involved in cooking.
I love finding shortcuts and ways to simplify recipes. That's why I took the Hairy Bikers' casserole as inspiration, tweaked the recipe method and created my no-fuss Sausage and Bean Hotpot.
❤️ Why I like This Sausage and Bean Hotpot
- most of the cooking is done in the oven
- there are fewer dirty dishes after cooking
- the recipe uses simple ingredients but doesn't lack flavour
- it's a great family dinner
📃 Ingredient Overview and Easy Substitutions
Main ingredients:
- 8 pork sausages; quality pork sausages
- 2 tbsp oil for frying
- 1 onion; cut in half and thinly sliced
- 2 tsp smoked paprika; or sweet paprika
- 2 tsp dry thyme; or oregano
- 2 pinches ground pepper
- 300 ml stock; chicken or vegetable
- 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 3 garlic cloves; thinly chopped
- 2 tbsp muscovado sugar; or brown sugar
- 400 g baked beans
- ½ baguette; approx. 10 - 11 slices around 1.5 - 2 centimetres thick
- 100 g cheddar cheese; alternative - gruyere or edam
- salt
Optional:
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce; or 1 tsp soya sauce with ½ tsp apple cider vinegar
- 100 ml red wine
Sausages
Use any good quality pork sausages; if you are preparing a vegan meal use vegan sausages instead.
Smoked paprika
Smoked paprika can be replaced with sweet paprika. It doesn't have a smoky flavour but still adds a red colour and subtle sweetness to the meal.
Stock
Use chicken stock or if you want to avoid meat choose vegetable stock instead.
We like Kallo organic stock cubes, but you can use any homemade or shop-bought stock.
Worcestershire sauce
This is an optional ingredient, you can either skip or replace it with 1 teaspoon of soya sauce and ½ teaspoon of apple cider vinegar.
Note: Do not use Worcestershire sauce if making a vegan meal as it typically contains fish.
Muscovado sugar
In addition to sweetness, muscovado sugar adds a brown colour to the meal, you can replace it with either brown sugar or caster sugar (without the colouring effect).
Dry thyme
Instead of thyme, you can use oregano, marjoram or mixed herbs in a 1:1 ratio.
Red wine
I like adding red wine into the casseroles and hotpots, as it adds a nice flavour boost to the meal, but if you don't have it don't worry, the meal will still taste great without it.
Baked beans
I picked baked beans for two reasons. Firstly, there is always a tin of baked beans in our pantry (yes, even food bloggers sometimes rock baked beans on toast for dinner). Secondly, the beans with sauce add more volume to the meal than just beans on their own.
Cheese
You want to use cheese that melts easily. We like cheddar cheese or gruyere the best, but edam or gouda are good alternatives.
👪 Yield/Portions
This hotpot makes 4 portions. I recommend serving two sausages per person with plenty of beans and sauce accompanied by a few slices of baked baguette.
Note: The sausage size might vary; supermarket sausages are generally smaller than those from a butcher.
Hands-on Time and Recipe Difficulty
This recipe isn't complicated at all. You just need to get all the ingredients ready, put everything into one pot, and the oven does the cooking for you.
The preparation and cooking time breaks down
- 15 minutes - preparation
- 10 minutes - frying sausages and onion
- 70 minutes - the main cooking time in the oven
📷 How to Make Sausage and Bean Hotpot Step by Step
Fry the sausages for 5 - 8 minutes on medium heat to give them a bit of colour. Use an oven-safe cast iron pot.
Set the sausages aside and fry the onion in the same pot until lightly golden.
Sprinkle paprika, thyme and garlic over the browned onion, give it a quick stir and pour in the stock, tomatoes and wine.
Add the Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and sugar; season with salt and pepper.
Insert the sausages back into the pot with the sauce, cover with a lid and put it in the preheated oven to 200C for 45 minutes.
Remove the pot from the oven, stir in the baked beans. Lay the slices of baguette over the top, and sprinkle with grated cheese.
Insert the dish back into the oven, this time without a lid, for an additional 15 - 20 minutes or until the cheese melted and the baguette edges are golden-brown.
🍎 Nutritional Value in my Sausage and Bean Hotpot
Comfort food is generally high in calories as it's often fatty, rich and full of carbohydrates, so don't expect a light meal from this Sausage and Bean Hotpot.
If you make 4 servings, there are 847 calories in one portion.
💡 How to adjust the Recipe (Vegan, Gluten-free)
Vegan option
There are four ingredients to watch out for if you want to turn this Sausage and Bean Hotpot into a vegan meal:
- pork sausages - can be replace with vegan sausages of your choice
- chicken stock - can be replace with vegetable stock
- Worcestershire sauce (fish) - either skip or replace 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce with 1 teaspoon of soya sauce and ½ teaspoon of apple cidre vinegar.
- cheese - use vegan alternative; our favourite is Applewood Vegan Smoky Cheese
Gluten-free option
If you decide to turn this meal into a gluten-free dish, pay attention to:
- sausages (may contain flour) - read the lables, most UK supermarkets sell flour-less sausages
- Worcestershire sauce (malt vinegar = barley) - can be replaced with free-from Worcester sauce available from Tesco or can be skipped
Note: I don't recommend soya sauce as a substitution for a gluten-free diet, as it contains flour.
- baguette - buy gluten-free version of baguett or you can alternatively skip the bread and serve this hotpot with rice
Storing
Fridge
Store up to 5 days in a container with a lid.
Freezer
Store up to 3 months in a sealed and airtight container or ziplock bag. You can either freeze individual portions or
Tip: You might prefer to freeze the individual portions rather than the whole batch if you are not sure how much you will need to defrost.
Reheating
Microwave
Reheat individual portions. Use a cover for the plate to prevent splatters; bread will get soft, not crispy.
Oven
Reheat the meal in an ovenproof pot covered with a lid; add a few splashes of water to the bottom to prevent over-drying.
Recipe Summary
Sausages, tomatoes and beans are an excellent foundation for this winter hotpot. It is an easy-peasy, one-pot meal that doesn't require too much work as the oven does most of the cooking.
This recipe was inspired by Hairy Bikers' Sausage Casserole featured in their cookbook The Hairy Bikers: Mums Know Best.
My version of the recipe has similar ingredients but I tweaked the steps to make it more simple. We really like this adjusted version, and I hope you will too.
Happy cooking, everyone.
Recipe Card
Sausage and Bean Hotpot
Ingredients
- 8 pork sausages
- 2 tbsp oil for frying
- 1 onion cut in half and thinly sliced
- 2 tsp smoked paprika alternative - sweet paprika
- 2 tsp dry thyme alternative - oregano
- 2 pinches ground pepper
- 300 ml chicken stock alternative - vegetable stock
- 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 3 garlic cloves thinly chopped
- 2 tbsp muscovado sugar alternative - brown sugar or caster sugar
- 400 g baked beans
- ½ baguette 10 - 11 slices around 1.5 - 2 centimetres thick
- 100 g cheddar alternative - gruyere or edam
- salt
Optional
- 100 ml red wine
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce can be replaced with 1 tsp soya sauce and ½ tsp of apple cider vinegar
Equipment
- cast iron pot or oven-proof dish with a lid - minimum 25cm diameter, 8cm tall
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C (fan assisted setting)
- Fry the sausages for 5 - 8 minutes on medium heat to give them colour. Use an oven-safe cast iron pot.
- Set the sausages aside and fry the onion in the same pot until lightly golden. Add more oil if needed.
- Sprinkle paprika, thyme and garlic over the browned onion, give it a quick stir and pour in the stock, tomatoes and wine.
- Add the Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and sugar and season with salt and pepper.
- Insert the sausages back into the pot with the sauce, cover with a lid and put it in the preheated oven to 200C for 45 minutes.
- Remove the pot from the oven stir in the baked beans. Lay the baguette slices over the top to cover the sausages and sauce, and sprinkle grated cheese all over.
- Insert the dish back into the oven, this time without a lid, for an additional 15 - 20 minutes or until the cheese melted and the baguette edges are golden-brown.
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