Meat mains
Baked honey and mustard roots with sausages and roasted garlic lentils
This is such a hearty dish; a healthier look at the humble sausage, with plenty of seasonal veg and earthy puy-style lentils.
Cook's notes
Honey and mustard add such good flavour to roasted roots. We've used carrots and parsnips here, but it will work with swede or celeriac chunks too.
Ingredients
- 400g carrots
- 300g parsnips
- 1 large or 2 smaller red onions
- oil for frying and roasting, e.g. sunflower or light olive
- ½ garlic bulb
- 4 pork and herb sausages
- 1 tbsp honey
- 5 good thyme sprigs
- 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
- 1 tin dark green speckled lentils
- 100ml chicken stock
- salt and pepper
Method
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Step 1
Preheat oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 5. Peel the carrots and parsnip(s) and cut into chunky batons. Peel the onion(s) and cut into wedges, leaving the root intact to hold them together. Transfer the veg to a good-sized roasting tin.
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Step 2
Separate and add the unpeeled cloves from half the garlic bulb. Toss together in just enough oil to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan. Add the sausages and fry, turning now and then, to brown them a little.
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Step 3
Nestle them in with the veg and pop the tin in the oven for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, boil a kettle. Mix the honey in 1 tablespoon of hot water in a small bowl or mug (this helps keep it liquified for later). Pick the leaves off 5 good thyme sprigs.
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Step 4
Remove the baking dish after 30 minutes of cooking. Scoop out the garlic and sausages. Mix the mustard into the honey mixture. Toss the root veg in the honey and mustard. Return the sausages to the veg tin (keep the garlic out though).
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Step 5
Return the tin to the oven for another 10 minutes or so, until the veg is tender. Drain the lentils into a sieve or fine colander and quickly rinse under cold water. Drain again, then pop them in a pan with the chicken stock.
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Step 6
Add the thyme leaves. Squeeze the garlic out of their skins, mash them a little with a fork and mix with the lentils. Simmer the lentils on the hob until the veg is ready.