Sticky Sausage, Carrot and Cous Cous Bake

Sausages are a great family food at this time of year, perhaps due to the association between bangers and bonfire night. It's also nice when you can just throw things into a pan in the oven at this time of year and enjoy some warming flavours.

I came across this recipe on the Tesco website for sticky sausages with carrots and couscous - not things I would have thought to combine, but it was really good and something I will definitely make again.

To serve 4 (or fewer, depending on how many sausages you want per person) you need:
8 pork sausages
150g Tendersweet carrots, halved lengthways - I used regular carrots though Chantenay carrots would also be good
1 red onion, sliced
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp clear honey

for the couscous:
200g couscous
1 tbsp. fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced

For the harissa yogurt

1 tbsp harissa paste

150g pot natural yogurt

 

Preheat oven to 200C. Line a roasting tin with foil and put the sausages, carrots and onions in the pan and toss with the cumin, coriander and oil. Roast for 30 minutes, turning halfway, until cooked through.

 

 

 

Make up the couscous according to pack instructions and leave to stand until all the water has been absorbed. Mix in the herbs, oil and lemon juice.

 

To make the harissa yogurt, mix the harissa paste into the yogurt. When the sausages are cooked, drizzle over the honey and toss the sausages and vegetables until they are coated. Serve with the couscous and harissa yogurt on the side.

 

I'm sharing this with Charlotte's Lively Kitchen's Food Calendar challenge as it was British Sausage Week when I made this recipe.

Deliciously Ella: Fennel, quinoa and broad bean summer salad

It's been a lovely bank holiday weekend and we've been to a barbecue today for my boyfriend's mum's 60th. It was hosted by her other son so I wasn't needed to provide the food (and didn't get to make the cake unfortunately!) but I did want to help out if I could. I was asked to make some sort of cous cous salad - since the other bases were already covered - and immediately thought of Deliciously Ella.

Have you come across Ella Woodward yet? Her cookbook was the fastest selling debut ever - though Ella had already become something of a celebrity through her blog, Deliciously Ella. The recipes are all extremely healthy, as Ella changed her way of eating after being diagnosed with a rare illness. I'd seen some of her recipes online and they appealed to me, so for my birthday I asked for - and got - a spiralizer and a copy of her recipe book.

The recipe I chose for my salad dish is available online here. It actually uses quinoa, though I found that the quantity wasn't really enough so added couscous as well (after all I was asked to make a cous cous dish!). It involves a whole host of other vegetables, including avocado which I have never cooked with before, and I thought that since my boyfriend's mum is a vegetarian she might enjoy it. It's certainly a very colourful, summery salad, and far more substantial and interesting than a bowl full of lettuce, tomato and cucumber!

Preparing the fennel mixing with the marinade

Cooking the quinoa

Red pepper and avocado

Adding the sweetcorn and broad beans

With the cous cous and quinoa, the fennel and the marinade some extra lemon juice and seasoning

I'm sharing this with Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter she has chosen this month is Q.

I'm also sending this to the Food Year Linkup, hosted by My Recipe Book, as it's National Vegetarian Week and also this is perfect for BBQ season.

 This recipe is ideal for No Croutons Required, the salads and soups blog challenge run by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa at Lisa's Kitchen.

Stuffed Baked Squash

My mum recently gave me half a baby pumpkin she had bought - at least I think it was a baby pumpkin rather than some other kind of squash, but either way it seemed quite appropriate for this time of year.

I found a recipe in Weight Watchers Simply Autumn for a stuffed baby squash which I decided to adapt to suit the ingredients I liked and had in the house.

I began by scooping out the seeds inside the pumpkin and roasting it in the oven.

I prepared some cous cous

Mixed the cous cous with onion, red pepper and cottage cheese

Spoon the filling into the pumpkin and bake again for another 20 minutes. Enjoy!

The Weight Watchers recipe has 3 points but mine might be different as I adapted it; I believe it would be free on Slimming World as long as you use the low-fat cottage cheese, depending on which plan you are following.

I am sending this to Weekend Herb Blogging, created by Cook Almost Anything, and this week hosted by La Cucina di Cristina, as they accept recipes using any herb or vegetable.

Halloween Fiesta, hosted by Cooks Joy, is welcoming recipes using pumpkin or squash this month so I am entering this recipe.

Cooks Joy is also hosting a Diwali Bash where the theme is also pumpkin:

Pumpkins are most definitely in season so I am sending this to Simple And In Season, an event created by Ren of Fabulicious Food and this month hosted by Franglais Kitchen.

Franglais Kitchen is also the host of this month's One Ingredient Challenge, created by How To Cook Good Food, where the ingredient is - helpfully - also pumpkin!

I am also sending this to Calendar Cakes, hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes and Laura from Laura Loves Cakes, as their theme this month is Halloween. You could serve this stuffed pumpkin for dinner on Halloween or any time around that period.