Comfort food: simple sausage and bean casserole

Cooking tips:

• Cheap and healthy, you can use spray oil to fry the onion. That way there’s only one calorie per spray.
• Try using veggie sausages to cut down on the fat content. You’ll find that they also soak up the flavours of the sauce better than meat sausages.
• You can bulk this recipe out with as much veg as you like. Try peppers, broccoli, mushrooms or kidney beans.
• If you’re not worried about the calories, then top off with grated cheese.
• This casserole is also surprisingly good with a poached egg on top, a good source of protein to keep you fuelled for those long revision sessions.

Ingredients:

• Sausages (add as many as you like)
• A tin of adzuki beans
• A tin of chopped tomatoes,
• One onion
• Frozen peas,
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• A splash of red wine
• A pinch of chilli powder
• Mixed dry herbs or fresh coriander/basil
• 1 tsp fennel seeds (optional)
• Red and yellow peppers

Method:

1. Grill the sausages (use a George Foreman grill if you have one).
2. Dry fry the onions and garlic, stirring constantly to prevent burning.
3. Add the peppers and spices. Fry for 2-3 minutes then rinse and drain the adzuki beans and add them to the mixture.
4. Stir for another minute, before adding the tinned tomatoes. Add the chilli, wine, frozen peas and herbs, and a half a teaspoon of sugar, and the sausages.
5. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes before serving with either a wholemeal pitta or garlic bread.