Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole

This slow cooker sausage casserole is the perfect family friendly meal, which is low in cost to buy and cook.

Warm and comforting, it's packed with carrots and mushrooms, in a rich and unctuous tomato sauce, so all you need to do is serve it with mashed potatoes or rice.

Swap the vegetables to your favourites, or whatever is sitting in your fridge, to vary the flavours too.

So easy and delicious!

Enjoy.

I've had the same slow cooker for 30 years and it comes out at least once a week all year round. There's something liberating about assembling the ingredients and then leaving the slow cooker to do it's magic, while I am busy, then arriving home to a delicious dinner.

Of course, it's also cheaper to run than an electric oven, so it's a total win for me.

This slow cooker sausage casserole can easily be tweeked for fussy eaters and uses very simple ingredients too.

Why you will love this dish

• Frugal - low cost ingredients and more economical to use a slow cooker
• Family friendly comfort food
• Easy to vary the ingredients to use up what you have in the fridge or cupboards
• Just serve with rice or pasta for a speedy meal
• Can be cooked by different methods according to the time you have
• Make ahead and freeze
• Turn it into a sausage cottage pie!

Jump to:

• Why you will love this dish
• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🍽 Equipment
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Top Tip
• ⏲️ Cooking Time
• 🥗 Side Dishes
• Substitutions
• 📖 Variations
• Storage
• FAQs
• 📋 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

🥘 Ingredients

• Sausages - good quality pork sausages. I've used Lincolnshire sausages, as I love the sage flavour. Poor quality sausages will make the dish greasy.
• Tomatoes - tin of chopped tomatoes.
• Onions - red onions to add sweetness to the sauce.
• Carrots - any type of carrots.
• Mushrooms - small white mushrooms.
• Herbs - dried mixed herbs.
• Seasoning - flaked sea salt and frehsly ground black pepper.
• Beef stock - preferably reduced salt.
• Tomato purée - to enrich the sauce.
• Cornflour - or cornstarch, as you may prefer to thicken the sauce at the end.
• Oil - oil for frying such as olive, vegetable or sunflower.
• Worcester sauce - this really adds a rich flavour to stews and gravies.

See recipe card for quantities.

🍽 Equipment

• Slow cooker - l litre or 5.5 pint capacity
• Large frying pan / skillet
• Sharp Knife
• Slotted spoon

🔪 Instructions

Preheat the slow cooker while you prepare the ingredients.

Peel the carrots and onion and chop the onion.

Slice the carrots into even sized chunks. For large carrots, cut them in half lengthways and then cut on the diagonal.

Cut the mushrooms into quarters.

💭 Top Tip

• If you chop the onion really finely then it will dissolve into the sauce, giving all the flavour, but none of the 'bits' some children object to!

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and add the onion.

Fry for about 5 minutes, until the onions are soft.

Add the carrots to the pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring.

Transfer the onions and carrots to the slow cooker with a slotted spoon.

Use the same pan to brown the sausages all over for 5-10 minutes.

If you have used very lean sausages you may need to usea little extra oil to fry the sausages.

💭 Top Tip

• It's best to brown the sausages as much as you prefer at this point, as they won't gain any colour in the slow cooker.

Transfer the sausages to the slow cooker.

Remove any fat from the pan with kitchen paper and discard.

Add the chopped tomatoes, stock, tomato purée, Worcester sauce, herbs and pepper.

Check the seasoning and add salt if required.

Bring the mixture to a boil.

Pour the tomato sauce into the slow cooker.

⏲️ Cooking Time

Put the lid on and cook for a total cooking time of 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low.

Add the mushrooms halfway through the cooking time.

Mix the cornflour with water and stir through when you add the mushrooms.

This will give a nice thick glossy sauce.

Scatter over some fresh chopped parsley to serve.

🥗 Side Dishes

Have a look at some British side dishes or just serve with plain boiled rice or pasta.

• Cheesy Mash
• Roast Potatoes
• Pan Heggarty
• Fried Cabbage with Bacon and Onions
• Leeks in White Sauce
• Cheesy Duchess Potatoes

Substitutions

• Worcester Sauce - use mushroom ketchup, dark soy sauce or balsamic vinegar.
• Onions - use any white, brown or yellow onions.

📖 Variations

• Vegan / vegetarian - use vegetable stock and vegetarian or vegan sausages.
• Beans - replace the tomatoes with a tin of baked beans, white beans or butter beans,
• Vegetables - use chunks of peppers, courgettes and aubergines, in place or in addition to the mushrooms, or other root vegetables such as celeriac, parsnip or swede in addition to the carrots.
• Mashed Potatoes - why not transfer the slow cooker sausage casserole to an oven proof dish, topped with mashed potato and brown under the grill for a sausage cottage pie.

Storage

• Refrigerator - store covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.
• Freezer - cool and pack into a container and freeze for up to 3 months.
• To reheat - Place in a covered casserole dish in the oven at 180 C / 350 F / 160 FAN / Gas 4 for 20 to 30 minutes until piping hot. Alternatively place in the slow cooker.

FAQs

More dishes like this

• Beef Olives
• Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder
• Pheasant and Venison Casserole
• Cotechino Sausage with Lentils
• Lincolnshire Sausage Skewers
• Venison Sausage Plait
• Slow Roast Belly Pork

📋 Recipe

Food Safety

• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat.
• Wash hands after touching raw meat.
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods.
• Never leave cooking food unattended.
• Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds.
• Always have good ventilation when using gas.

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