Sausage, stuffing and garlic wedges tray bake with McCain

The boys have embraced making their own tea once a week with vigour usually reserved only for Lego! The fish and chip supper they rustled up last week as part of the McCain Kids Teatime Takeover (#KidsTeatimeTakeover) is still discussed as one of the best all time teas they’ve ever eaten.

This week they made a sausage tray bake. Now this is the kind of food that gets ticks from all over the place. The boys, all three of them, love sausages and potato wedges, and with the added garlic on these McCain Wedges they’re even happier. (Is it just my sons who love garlic on anything?) Me – I’m loving the amount of vegetables and of course, a one tray tea means less washing up.

They had an idea to add homemade apple and sultana stuffing balls, which in my opinion makes this mid-week tea feel really special; like an easier version of the Sunday roast. (And if you don’t have the time or ingredients to make from scratch, simply make some stuffing balls up using a packet mix). The vegetables they chose are ever so slightly on the sweet side, making them popular with everyone. They’re also easy to peel for smaller fingers. You can cut them as small or large as you wish, just remember to adjust the roasting time if your veg is more ‘rustic’ in appearance.

I can’t recommend letting the kids prepare their own tea enough. I often feel like teatime is a bit of a blur. It’s a race against the clock to get food on the table, then clear up, prepare for the next day at school and get the bedtime routine done and dusted. It’s relentless. Getting the boys to come up with ideas and actually prepare their own tea once a week has been like pressing a pause button. We spend time together, talk about something other than the usual school chat and they are just so proud of their efforts; they beam when it’s served up!

If you want to take part in the McCain Kids Teatime Takeover and swap roles with the kids and get them involved in making the tea, don’t forget to tag your pictures, videos and recipes with #KidsTeatimeTakeover.

Sausage, stuffing and garlic wedges tray bake

Serves 4 – 6 children or 2 adults and 2 – 3 children, scale up or down accordingly.

Ingredients:

For the traybake:

2 tbsp rapeseed oil
500g McCain Garlic Wedges
12 Cumberland sausages
5 carrots, peeled and cut in half lengthways
3 parsnips, peeled and cut into halves or quarters lengthways (they need to be the same size as the carrots)

For the stuffing:

1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 tsp dried sage
1tsp black pepper
120g breadcrumbs
60g raisins
1 small apple, grated (core discarded)
1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 230°C/Fan 220°C/Gas Mark 8. Grease a large roasting tray with 2 tbsp rapeseed oil.

Make the stuffing by heating the rapeseed oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and frying the onion for about 10 minutes until really soft. Remove from the heat and scrape into a bowl.

Add the sage, pepper, breadcrumbs and raisins then stir with a spoon.

Add the grated apple, stir, then the egg and stir again before using your hands (careful if the onion is still hot – check before allowing kids to use their hands) to divide the mixture up into 10 equal portions.

Roll the stuffing into 10 balls and place in the roasting tray.

Place the sausages, carrots and parsnips around the stuffing balls and oven roast for 25 minutes until the sausages are starting to brown and the carrots and parsnips are crispy at the edges.