I do love a traybake dinner recipe, and this is quite a favourite. It’s one of those vegan family meals that tends to satisfy everyone, even the vegan toddler! They can pick out the lovely, chewy sausages, munch happily on the crunchy, oily bread and you may even get the odd vegetable to slip down unnoticed too! You can dial the volumes up or down, spreading across 2 roasting trays instead of one if you need to (don’t overcrowd the tray because it could just turn into a soggy mush) and leave things out and add ingredients in to ring the changes.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this recipe, and try swapping ingredients in and out to suit personal tastes and family meal preferences. Leave a comment below to let me know what ingredients you have changed or added to it – I’d love to hear from you!
Discover all my favourite vegan sausages here!
Vegan Sausage Traybake Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Large Roasting Tray
- 1 Medium saucepan - for par-boiling the potatoes
- 1 Large Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 Pack Vegan Sausages M&S Plant Kitchen No Chorizo Puppies work really well
- 250 Grams New Potatoes, halved/quartered into 3-4cm pieces Par-boiled for 10 minutes until softening
- 1 Large Courgette, cut into 3-4cm chunks
- 2 Red or Orange Bell Peppers, de-seeded and cut into 3-4cm pieces Romano Peppers are great
- 2 Large Onions, peeled and cut into thick wedges
- 6 Cloves Garlic, skin on and smashed lightly with the side of a knife
- 3 tspn Smoked Paprika Use either the Hot, or the Sweet, depending on preference
- 200 Grams Cherry Tomatoes
- 1 Medium Ciabatta loaf, Baguette or artisan bread Packs of part-baked bread can be used
- 150 Grams Baby leaf spinach, washed and drained Optional
- 75 ml Olive Oil + ½ tspn You can use extra virgin, but standard Olive Oil is fine here
- Salt and Black Pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 210°C, or 200°C for fan assisted
- Chop and par-boil the potatoes
Prepare the onions, courgettes, pepper and garlic- Add 3 Tablespoons of the Olive Oil to the Roasting Tray
- Add the first 7 ingredients to the tray (up to and including the paprika) and coat in the oil. Season with salt and pepper
- Place at the top of the hot oven and roast for 15 minutes
- Remove after 15 minutes and add the tomatoes. Turn the tray contents with a spatula
- Everything should be starting to soften and brown slightly. Turn oven down if it is browning too quickly
- Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes
- Meanwhile, tear the bread into large chunks and place in a large bowl
- Add the remaining olive oil, reserving ½ tspn
- Mix the bread with the oil and season
- Remove the tray from the oven and add the bread, turning it to coat it in some of the juices
- Return to the oven for 10 minutes
- If using, place the spinach leaves into the bowl that you used for the bread and mix with the remaining ½ tspn of olive oil and a tiny pinch of salt
- Remove the tray from the oven after 10 minutes and scatter the spinach leaves across the top
- Return to the oven for 5 minutes for the spinach to wilt and crisp slightly
- Remove the tray from the oven and turn everything into a large serving dish, mixing to incorporate the wilted spinach
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
The Humble Vegan Sausage
We had a friend round to dinner recently, a non-vegan, and the conversation arose (as it often does with meat-eaters) about why we call ‘vegan sausages’ ‘sausages’. And cheese, and milk, and cream, and creme fraiche, and…well, the list goes on doesn’t it?
To me, it is simply because it is sausage-shaped and I cook with vegan sausages in the same way someone else might cook with a meat sausage. I’m never quite sure what the problem is, other than the meat and dairy industry maybe doesn’t want someone buying a plant-based sausage thinking it is a meat one, and then finding out that they actually enjoy it!
Anyway, argument for another day, and you can find out more of my thoughts in my guide to the best vegan sausages in the UK, so watch this space. Believe me, I have eaten more than my fair share so feel that I am more than qualified to expand on this subject – a little like my waistline.
Traybake Dinner Recipes are so Versatile
That is the beauty of traybake dinner recipes – they tend to be very versatile.
With this recipe, if you don’t feel like par-boiling potatoes and want to just throw stuff into a roasting tray and have done with it, then drain a tin of chickpeas and add them instead. That adds extra protein too. Or chop up a couple of parsnips – make them small enough and they won’t need par-boiling.
Don’t like courgettes? Use mushrooms or carrots instead. Did you know, you can even roast cabbage? Cut a savoy or pointed cabbage into wedges, keeping the stalk attached so the leaves don’t fall off and add that instead. It might take up more room, but it’ll be very tasty!
What are the Best Vegan Ingredients for this Recipe?
With the vegan sausages, you can use pretty much any you like, even homemade (as long as they’ll stick together for long enough!) If you use a paler version, like Richmond Meat Free Sausages, they will taste great, but I suggest that you brown them first in a frying pan, otherwise they will affect the look of the dish. I do have a preference though for ‘chorizo’ style, and they go particularly well with the paprika seasoning used in this dish. I have suggested 2 of my favourites below, one of which I also use in my Vegan Paella Recipe:
For the bread, Ciabatta works really well, or you could use a part-baked baguette like this one from Abel&Cole
As I mention in the recipe, you can use extra-virgin olive oil if you like, but it will add a lot of flavour that is not always to everyone’s taste, and is significantly more expensive too. I tend to use standard olive oil for the vegetables, and occasionally splash out with the extra-virgin olive oil to mix with the bread.
As always with vegetables, if you can use organic, then do. It’s better for you and better for the planet – Riverford Organic Farmers and Abel & Cole both offer great weekly veg box schemes.
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