A hearty Sausage Casserole recipe is always a family favourite and total comfort food. A great way to add some extra vegetables to your family's diet and easy to make a vegetarian version too. This Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole is quick and simple to prepare and the slow cooker does all the work. It's great for batch cooking and freezing too.
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This is the ultimate rainy day dish. Just add your favourite sausages to the slow cooker with some crunchy vegetables, tomatoes, beans and seasoning and let it cook away. We put it on before we head out for a walk on a Sunday walk and it's the perfect dish to come home to.
Anything with sausages always goes down well with my family and this is the easiest way to use them. So easy to adapt with your favourite sausages and vegetables and so many different ways to serve it. It's also VERY forgiving in case you leave it on a bit longer.
We would go as far to say that sausage casserole in the slow cooker is the ultimate comfort food.
Looking for more sausage recipes? Why not try our easy Air Fryer Sausages, cheesy Sausage Pasta Bake, our simple Air Fryer Sausage Rolls or for some comfort food, our Toad in the Hole?
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Ingredients and Substitutions
A full ingredients list, along with US Customary and Metric measurements, can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Sausages - We used 97% pork sausages as they have a high meat content and low sodium. Any sausages will work though and you can also use vegetarian sausages.
- Chopped tomatoes - Try to use a good quality chopped tomato as cheaper ones can be a bit watery.
- Baked beans - Either use a tin of baked beans for convenience or use some of our Slow Cooker Baked Beans.
- Vegetables - We used shallots, leek, celery, carrot and bell pepper.
- Worcestershire sauce - This can be left out but it really does add a nice depth of flavour.
- Stock - Beef, chicken or vegetable stock can be used. We didn't add any extra salt as they stock seasons it enough.You could add some black pepper too.
- Tomato puree - Used to thicken the sauce.
Variations
Sausages - Whether they are pork, chicken or vegetarian/vegan, you want to go with the best quality you can get as they really are the star of the dish here. We used 97% pork sausages as they are nice and lean, but you can use whatever your favourite sausages are. You could use flavoured sausages like apple or chilli for some extra flavour.
If you are using meat sausages, go with a high meat percentage and look out for the sodium levels. You could also add some diced cooked bacon or chorizo to it too.
Vegetables - The beauty of this slow cooker sausage casserole recipe is that you can use any vegetables you have in your fridge. It's a great way to reduce food waste and use vegetables that are starting to look a bit sorry for themselves.
Dishes like this are a great opportunity to add loads of extra vegetables. We kept it classic with some carrot, celery, onion and leeks, but this is really easy to adapt. You want to stick with chunky vegetables, so peppers, parsnips, courgette, mushrooms and aubergine would all work well.
Make sure you chop the vegetables fairly small to make sure that they are cooked through and cut them the same size so they cook evenly. If you want to give this dish a green veggie boost, then stir in some spinach or frozen peas about 30 minutes before it is ready.
Beans - This is a slow cooker sausage and bean casserole, so the beans are important. You could swap the tin of baked beans for another canned bean like pinto or cannellini, or even chickpeas.
How to Make Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole
- Step one: Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the sausages. Brown them for 2-3 minutes, turning often. Once cooked add to the slow cooker.
- Step two: Add the carrot, shallot, celery, leek and bell pepper to the pan and cook for 2 minutes.
- Step three: Add the cooked vegetables to the slow cooker.
- Step four: Deglaze the pan with 100ml boiling water then the beef stock and tomato puree. Heat and stir. Add to the slow cooker with the chopped tomatoes, beans and Worcestershire sauce. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
Serving Suggestions
There are a few options here when it comes to side dishes. Mashed potatoes and sausage casserole are a match made in heaven, so why not try The Best Creamy Mashed Potatoes? If you want even more veggies in this meal, then pair it with our Vegetable Mash.
Fancy something a little less traditional? Our Baked Polenta Fries, Easy Cauliflower Cheese, and The Best Air Fryer Fries are all delicious side dishes.
You could also serve this on top of our Microwave Pasta, Microwave Rice or a Microwave Baked Potato. It's a really versatile dish.
Storage
Store: This is a great batch cook meal and we always make extra so that we can portion it out to keep in the fridge/freezer for an easy week night meal. You can keep this in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Freeze: Make sure to let the casserole cool completely and then portion it out into freezer safe containers and put in the freezer (with some mashed potato too). It will keep in there for about 3 months.
Defrost: Let it defrost fully in the fridge overnight.
Reheat: Pop it in the microwave for a couple of minutes to reheat.
Dannii's Top Tips
- You don't have to brown the sausages first, but it really does make a big difference to the texture and it locks in the flavour.
- Make sure any vegetables are chopped up small, as they actually take longer than meat to cook in a slow cooker.
- You can add some small chopped up potatoes, rather than serving it on mash to make the slow cooked sausage casserole a whole meal.
- If you like spicy food, add a little chopped red chilli for a kick or heat and play around with the dried herbs and swap oregano for thyme.
- To make this gluten free, make sure you use gluten free sausages and Worcestershire sauce.
- Make this a more indulgent dish by cooking some chopped bacon with the sausages and adding that to the slow cooker too.
- If it is too watery once it has finished cooking, then add a couple of tablespoons of gravy granules to thicken up until the desired consistency.
Frequently Asked Questions
If it is looking a little bit watery just before you are ready to serve it, then take the lid off and then stir in a couple of teaspoons of gravy granules. Try to use the best quality that you can, and it will add lots of flavour. You could add a spoonful of Marmite too.
If you use really good quality tinned tomatoes, then you shouldn't have to thicken it as there is not much liquid added to this dish. However, cheap tinned tomatoes are really watery and might mean this needs thickening at the end.
I love an easy slow cooker meal, and not browning the meat does make it quicker and easier, but I do think it is worth browning the sausages first. If you have a slow cooker that you can put the bowl directly on a hob, then you can cook them in that first.
Not only does it lock in the flavour (this is true for browning all meat before slow cooking), but with sausages I think that it really helps with the texture. Frying them a little first helps them to get nice and crispy and you can also drain off the excess fat that comes out of them why frying first. If you just put them in the slow cooker, they get a little mushy.
Yes, if you are going to put it on in the morning before you head out for the day, then you can do some prep work the night before. Simply brown the sausages and precook the vegetables the night before and mix it all together in your slow cooker bowl, put the lid on and then keep it in the fridge. Then, in the morning you can just take it out of the fridge and put it on.
Yes! Once everything is browned, then you you can put it in a casserole dish and then in a pre-heated oven at 170C for about an hour, until everything is cooked through.
More Slow Cooker Recipes
If you've tried this slow cooker sausage casserole, let us know how you got on in the comments below.
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Recipe
Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Olive oil
- 6 Pork sausages
- 4 Shallots - diced
- 2 Carrot - peeled and diced
- 1 Celery rib - diced
- 1 Leek - finely sliced
- 1 Red bell pepper
- 400 g (14 oz) Chopped tomatoes - canned
- 410 g (14.5 oz) Baked beans
- 100 ml (0.75 cups) Beef stock
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon Tomato puree
- 100 ml Boiling water
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon Olive oil in a frying pan and add 6 Pork sausages. Brown them for 2-3 minutes, turning often. Add them to the slow cooker.
- Add 2 Carrot, 4 Shallots, 1 Leek, 1 Red bell pepper and 1 Celery rib to the pan and cook for 2 minutes.
- Put the vegetables into the slow cooker.
- Deglaze the pan with 100 ml Boiling water then add 100 ml Beef stock and 1 tablespoon Tomato puree. Heat and stir. Add to the slow cooker.
- Add 400 g Chopped tomatoes and 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce. Cook on high for 3 hours or low for 6 hours.
- Add 410 g Baked beans, mix well and cook for a further 1 hour on high or 2 hours on low.
Recipe Tips
- You don't have to brown the sausages first, but it really does make a big difference to the texture and it locks in the flavour.
- You can add some small chopped up potatoes, rather than serving it on mash to make the slow cooked sausage casserole a whole meal.
- If you like spicy food, add a little chopped red chilli for a kick or heat and play around with the dried herbs and swap oregano for thyme.
- To make this gluten free, make sure you use gluten free sausages and Worcestershire sauce.
- Make this a more indulgent dish by cooking some chopped bacon with the sausages and adding that to the slow cooker too.
- If it is too watery once it has finished cooking, then add a couple of tablespoons of gravy granules to thicken up until the desired consistency.
Nutritional Information
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The nutritional information provided is approximate and is calculated using online tools. Information can vary depending on various factors, but we have endeavoured to be as accurate as possible.
As all appliances vary, cooking times are a guide. Please note that by changing the serving size, the cooking time may also need to be altered.
Rickie Whitaker says
made this for tea for friends on Saturday night it was a big hit and they asked for the recipe. It was easy to follow the recipe and very tasty.
England won as well so the night was a big success. i will try more of your recipes Thank you
Dannii says
So glad you all enjoyed it. Maybe it was the key to England winning. We must all eat it on Wednesday to ensure their success!