Sausage Hotpot
- Nigel Barden
- Jan 4, 2024
- 2 min read
by Brian Turner from Great British Grub (Headline)
Photography: Noel Murphy & William Shaw
…It’s got potatoes in it, but the great idea of a hotpot is to use up what you have around (‘hotch potch’), and often the ingredient that you hadn’t thought about and put in turns out to be the star. Over Christmas time, it’s quite possible to end up with pre-cooked sausages, and these work just as well. This is simple, uncomplicated and quick to make – a good taste after rich foods.
SERVES 4
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
12 pork sausages
115g (4oz) smoked bacon
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
225g (8oz) dried haricot beans, soaked in water overnight (or 2x400g tins, drained)
225g (8oz) canned chopped tomatoes
225g (8oz) carrots, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
850ml (1½ pints) chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
225g (8oz) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm (½in) dice
1 tbsp Tabasco Pepper Sauce, or your favourite chilli sauce (optional)
2 tbsp (8oz) chopped fresh parsley
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4/350°F.
2. Heat the olive oil in a casserole, put in the sausages and colour all round, about four minutes. Take out and keep to one side.
3. Cut the bacon into large strips and colour in the oil in the casserole, about three-four minutes. Add the chopped onion and garlic and turn down the heat. Add the drained soaked beans, the tomatoes, carrots and stock and bring back to the boil. Season.
4. Add the sausages, put a lid on the casserole, and cook in the preheated oven for 40 minutes.
5. Add the potatoes to the hotpot, and add Tabasco, stir and put back in the oven with the lid off. Cook for another 20 minutes.
6. When cooked, take out, sprinkle with parsley and serve.
Instead of the parsley, you could mix 175g (6oz) diced bread croutons (or breadcrumbs) with two tbsp of chopped fresh parsley and 115g (4oz) grated Cheddar cheese and sprinkle over the hotpot when it is cooked.
You can cook this dish in one container then decant into a more table-friendly pot to serve.
I like this hotpot when the liquor is reduced so the meat and vegetables are not too sloppy.
The diced potatoes and carrots make this feel more like a proper stew than the sliced-potato hotpots I grew up with — I’m into it. I’d probably finish it with parsley and a little lemon just to lift the richness. Random thought: the way you can “adjust to what suits you” here is kind of like StyleLookLab does with outfit ideas, where small tweaks make a big difference.
This is exactly my kind of post-Christmas dinner: comforting but not too heavy, and it doesn’t pretend to be fancy. I’d probably crisp the bacon a bit more before the onion/garlic just for texture. Totally unrelated, but the “turn something ordinary into something cozy” vibe weirdly reminds me of a Ghibli-style photo filter, just in food form, and I mean that in a good way.
Using up what’s in the fridge is honestly the best part of hotpot — I’ve thrown in random odds and ends and somehow it always comes together. The optional Tabasco note made me smile because that’s exactly how I cook: add heat if it needs it, don’t if it doesn’t. Side note, the “submit and discover” vibe on hrefgo feels similar to this recipe’s philosophy of making something good out of what you’ve already got, then tweaking as you go.
The bacon + beans combo is doing a lot of work here — you can almost skip any fancy seasoning and it’ll still taste rich. I also appreciate the clear, numbered steps; it’s oddly satisfying in the same way I’ve seen a handy vigenere cipher tool lay things out (input, key, result) without extra fuss. Might try this with a bit of smoked paprika next time for more depth.
This feels like the kind of hearty one-pot that actually tastes better the next day once the beans and stock have had time to mingle. I’ve done similar with leftover bangers and it’s surprisingly forgiving — a bit like those quick “clear the grid” puzzle games, like a block puzzle game, where one good move changes everything. I’m curious if anyone’s tried swapping haricots for butter beans and how it turns out.