Sausage and Vegetable Stew with Cheesy Dumplings

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Pre-heat your oven to 180 C.

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Drain the pickled onions and rinse with water. If you can get the baby ones, then even better.

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• 6 pickled onion
• 1 celery
• 1½ cloves garlic
• 150 g Chestnut mushrooms

Peel and finely slice the garlic, slice the mushrooms and chop the celery sticks into 2cm chunks.

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• 3 pork sausage

Cut the sausages into bite-size chunks. I’ve stated ‘pork’ but any type of sausage will do - even vegetarian.

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• 30 ml coffee

Boil the kettle and add it to the coffee granules to make 60ml. Stir well and set aside.

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• 1 tbsp olive oil

• Casserole dish

Place a casserole dish over a medium heat and add the oil.

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Once the pan is hot, add the onions along with the garlic, celery and mushrooms. Sauté the mixture for 2-3 minutes before adding your root vegetable(s).

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• 100 g Root vegetables of choice

Peel and cube your root vegetables (carrot, potato, celeriac, turnip all work well - or a mixture of them) into similar size pieces. Stir regularly so they don’t burn.

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Add the chopped vegetables and the sausages to the pan and mix to combine.

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• 3 sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 sprigs rosemary
• 1 sprigs thyme
• ½ bay leaf

While that’s cooking, chop the sun-dried tomatoes (rehydrate if necessary) then add them to the pan. If you’re rehydrating dried tomatoes, keep the rehydrated liquid to one side. Follow with the thyme, rosemary and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper.

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• 1½ tbsp flour
• 125 ml red wine

Turn the heat down to low, then stir in the plain flour. Cook out the flour for 2 minutes before deglazing the pan with the red wine (or use apple juice if you want to keep it alcohol free). Let the wine bubble away for 2 minutes to cook off the alcohol then add the reserved liquid from the tomatoes (if applicable).

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• 250 ml Vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• ½ tbsp Marmite

Add the vegetable stock, marmite, soy sauce and coffee and mix to combine.

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Add a lid and let the stew bubble away for 10 minutes. Stirring occasionally.

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• 90 g Self-raising flour
• 35 g butter

• bowl

While that’s cooking, make the dumplings. In a mixing bowl, add the self-raising flour and butter. Using your clean hands, rub the ingredients together until you get a breadcrumb-like consistency.

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• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 25 g cheese
• ½ tbsp dried chives
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Grate the cheese finely and add to the bowl along with the chia seeds, garlic granules / powder, chives (chopped finely if using fresh) and season with salt.

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• ½ dash milk

Bring the mixture together with a splash of milk (or water) to form a ball of dough. Form the mixture into 8 small or 4 large dumplings.

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Take off the lid and lay the dumplings on top of the stew. Place the dish into your oven for 30 minutes or until the dumplings are nicely golden and crispy on top.

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Serve the stew as is in a bowl, or with some steamed vegetables and enjoy!

Enjoy your meal!