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How do you feel about recipes with lots of ingredients and steps? Personally, I am realising more and more what a lazy cook I am! I love the idea, and most definitely the beautiful photographs, of recipes with amazing combinations of ingredients and flavours and three different parts. Perhaps a dish like pepper-crusted tenderloin stuffed with goats cheese and roasted apple served with sautéed Cajun-spiced seasonal vegetables and a red wine jus. Oooh, I know, sounds awful … TOO much going on! But I think you probably get my point!
Actually, I’d love to be invited to a dinner party where the host cooks me an amazing Michelin star-worthy dish! Are you taking note, any gourmet chef friends who happen to be reading? But, I definitely don’t want to go to the trouble of making a meal like that myself!
Don’t get me wrong, though. I don’t mind a bit of effort. Honestly, I don’t. Or the odd recipe where there are a few more ingredients or steps than usual. But on the whole the recipes that really excite me are the ones that are super easy to make but still turn out wonderfully tasty as if you have actually gone to a whole lot of effort.
In particular, to me there is no better meal than one which you can throw together in one big baking dish, put in the oven and go off and do your laundry … or sneak in an episode of House of Cards, more like. It might need a quick shuffle or stir half way through, but that’s pretty much all the loving attention it needs after you’ve done the initial peeling and chopping. Personally, I just need to remember to set a timer on my phone though so I don’t forget all about that wonderful deliciousness cooking itself up in my oven. Yes, the voice of experience of ruined dinners speaks!
Cue this easy one-tray sausage, sweet potato and orange bake! It takes no longer than about 10 minutes or so to prep everything and another 45 minutes to cook (almost) by itself. Brilliant!
To begin with, all you need are sweet potatoes, an onion, a few cloves of garlic and a packet of sausages. I used chicken sausages, which worked really well, but I honestly think you could use any sausages you fancy. I would only recommend buying the very best, meatiest sausages you can find, from a good local butcher preferably. This is not a dish to be putting your local discount supermarket’s value brand pork sausages with only 30% meat and goodness knows what else in! Save those for your summer BBQ hot dogs! (?? Or maybe not …)
So chop your sweet potatoes into wedges and dump them with the unpeeled garlic cloves and your sausages into a large baking dish and whack the whole dish, uncovered, in the oven to roast for half an hour or so, just tossing occasionally so that the sausages brown nicely on all sides.
Then there’s the lovely marinade, or juice, or gravy, or whatever you want to call it. To prepare that just whizz together the grated zest and juice of an orange with some maple syrup and cinnamon and you’re done. Then add the rest of the ingredients to the tray and pour the whole marinade over everything and let it cook for a little longer to get all sticky and bubbly.
The only thing that’s left to do is to crumble over a little blue cheese 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time, if you choose to. I know not everyone is a fan of blue cheese, but honestly it goes so so well in this dish. If you really can’t handle it, you could use another sharp crumbly cheese instead, or just omit the cheese altogether. It’s actually flavourful enough already, but for me the cheese really complements the orange and cinnamon in the sauce and adds a delicious extra tang to the dish.
I served this with a little bit of creamy mash on the side. I know, there are already potatoes in the dish but, well, a different kind! So that’s OK. In my humble opinion! I couldn’t resist, just to soak up all that lovely juice, but I think this would also be great with polenta, quinoa, crusty bread or even just some crisp green salad leaves.
Oh, and I’m probably stating the obvious here, but don’t forget to squeeze the lovely sweet roasted garlic out of its ‘skin’ and squash it into the sauce as you eat. Delicious!
So … as I love these kinds of recipes so much, please give me some more inspiration! What are your favourite almost-cook-themselves one-dish or tray-bake meals?
Sausage, sweet potato & orange tray-bake
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 3 medium sweet potatos or 2 large!, peeled
- 4 garlic cloves unpeeled but ‘squashed’ a little with your palm
- 8 best quality sausages I used chicken sausages
- a good drizzle of olive oil for cooking
- 7 ounces green beans
- a good handful of chopped pecan nuts or another kind of nut such as walnuts or hazelnuts if you prefer
- 4 or 5 sprigs of thyme
- grated zest and juice of an orange
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4-1/2 cup blue cheese (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C/390F.
- Cut the onion into medium-sized chunks and the sweet potatoes into medium-sized wedges and throw them all into a large baking dish with the garlic cloves.
- Add the sausages to the dish and toss everything together with a good drizzle of olive oil. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the sausages are nice and golden, tossing half way through cooking.
- Whisk together the orange zest and juice, maple syrup and cinnamon, then add the green beans, nuts, leaves from the thyme sprigs and salt and pepper to taste to the dish before pouring the marinade over everything.
- Bake for about another 15 minutes (or until the sweet potatoes are done), scattering the blue cheese over the top of the dish 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time to melt.
- Serve with creamy mashed potatoes, polenta, crusty bread or a simple green salad.
Notes
Nutrition
Another easy and delicious one-dish meal: Stove-top Mediterranean chicken casserole.
I hope you enjoyed this post! You can find more from Scrummy Lane on Facebook and Pinterest and you can also follow me on Bloglovin! Thanks so much for reading!
Valerie Fouquette says
Absolutely delicious! I made it for my husband with Feta instead of blue cheese, chicken sausages and I also added chicken breast that I needed to use up, and served it with a green salad. I’m making it for guests next time! Thanks.
Helen says
Hi Valerie – thank you so much for taking the time to pop here and leave your lovely feedback. You’ve made my day! This is one of my older recipes which I haven’t made for a while, but now you’ve made me want to make it again. And I might follow your lead and make it with feta too this time.
Oh, and ff you like one-pot chicken dinners you might enjoy this one, too: https://scrummylane.com/greek-lemon-oregano-chicken-crispy-potatoes-worldwide-700-giveaway/
This is also one of my older recipes, but it’s still one of my favourites!
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
This tray bake looks fantastic. So glad I discovered your blog!
Helen says
So glad you found me, too, and thanks for commenting. I hope you give the tray-bakee a go some time!
✽. aimée .✽ / WallflowerGirl.co.uk says
I’m wondering why I’ve never thought of pairing sweet potato and orange together before, it makes so much sense! Sounds delicious – the perfect dinner 🙂
And I definitely agree with you about the amount of steps in a recipe. I hate it when I realise *I’ve* made one of those recipes and then desperately try to condense it and simplify it as much as I can!
Helen says
Glad you like it, Aimee. This really was one of those dinners that I enjoyed every mouthful of.
Sarah & Arkadi says
great idea with the orange! love it!
Helen says
Thank you! It was delicious!
Joanne says
I love making one big easy bake like this! Such a delicious meal for not that much effort.
Helen says
Couldn’t agree more, Joanne! Thanks for visiting!
Liz says
I love a one dish meal…especially one that’s full of delicious ingredients PLUS beautiful to the eyes!
Helen says
Thank you, Liz! This did end up quite colourful, which is definitely a bonus!
Allie | Baking a Moment says
Ooh, Helen! The more I get to know your food, the more I see that you’re making just exactly the kind of meals I’m looking for! This looks like a perfect weeknight meal, easy but not the least bit boring. I’d never have thought to combine sausage with orange and sweet potato but it’s absolute genius! And the blue cheese finish is perfection. Pinning, once again! I’ll be making this for sure. And ps- I’m the same way when it comes to dinners, I want no muss no fuss, but somehow when it comes to dessert I’m happy to take my time. What’s up with that???
Helen says
Allie, you’re so sweet … you always have such lovely things to say! I think it’s my life’s mission (well, in the food sense that is!) to find meals like you describe, that I can make really really easily during the week but still enjoy. And at least now I can put that mission to even better use by posting all the recipes I find here! Let me know if you do end up trying this … I’m pretty confident you’ll enjoy it! Enjoy your weekend!
Jess says
This looks delicious, Helen! I love the colours 🙂
Helen says
Thank you, Jessica! Have a lovely weekend!
Tina @ Tina's Chic Corner says
I definitely have to be in the mood to cook something with a lot of ingredients…is that bad? 😉 I love everything about this dish! My husband are huge fans of sausage and sweet potatoes. The best part may be that we’ll have leftovers for lunch for the week!
Helen says
Actually we did eat this two days in a row, Tina, and it did just fine being re-heated. I hope you give it a go!
Natalie @ Tastes Lovely says
This sounds delicious Helen! I love recipes like this, where you throw all the chopped ingredients in a dish and let the oven do all the work. The flavors sound amazing. Will definitely be making this soon!
Helen says
Aw, thanks, Natalie! It would make my day for sure if you did try making it and please let me know what you think if you do! 🙂