The sausage and vegetable traybake is my lowest-effort-highest-reward dinner. Ten minutes to chop and arrange things in a pan, forty-five minutes in the oven, done. No standing at the stove. No stirring. No timing four things at once. This is the dinner for the night when you have nothing left in you.
Use good pork sausages — the ones with a high meat content that will split and caramelise at the edges rather than steam and go rubbery. The vegetables roast while the sausages cook and everything finishes at the same time if you've cut them to a similar size.
This is kid-friendly in the best possible way: everyone can identify what's on their plate and nothing is "hidden" in a suspicious sauce. My youngest, who has Opinions about food, has been eating this version happily since she was four. I consider that a reliable endorsement.
"Ten minutes of effort. Forty-five minutes of doing something else. Perfect dinner."
Ingredients
- 8 pork sausages (good quality)
- 400g baby potatoes, halved
- 2 red capsicum, cut into chunks
- 2 red onions, cut into wedges
- 200g cherry tomatoes
- 1 large zucchini, cut into thick rounds
- 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- Salt and pepper
- Mustard and crusty bread to serve
Method
Step 1
Preheat oven to 200°C. Put the halved potatoes in the roasting tin, toss with 1 tbsp olive oil and season. Roast for 15 minutes while you prep the rest.
Step 2
Add the capsicum, onion, zucchini, cherry tomatoes and garlic to the tin. Add the sausages on top. Drizzle with remaining olive oil, sprinkle with oregano and paprika, season with salt and pepper.
Step 3
Return to the oven for 40–45 minutes, turning the sausages halfway, until they are golden and the vegetables are caramelised at the edges. The potatoes should be cooked through.
Step 4
Serve directly from the tin with mustard for dipping and crusty bread. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skin over the vegetables as a bonus.
