Sausage and Mash
Sausage and mash is a British staple! It is affordable and filling and enjoyable, so it often appears on our dinner tables. We’ve got together some expert tips and simple steps to show you how to slowly improve your sausage and mash recipe, whether you are just starting out or know what you are doing but just want to add a little more veg. Take it at your own speed, and let us help you take your sausage and mash from good to great!
Why is sausage & mash so great?
Sausage and mash is a classic for a reason – it is tasty, filling and affordable.
Although we should be careful how much processed meat we eat, having sausage and mash occasionally could be a great way to take a family favourite and improve the recipe through small steps. Mash is a great vehicle for some extra veg, and with a smaller portion of meat and some added veg, becomes a balanced meal that will fill you up, too.
If your family are big sausage and mash fans, a focus on smaller, better quality portions of meat where possible, while adding a little more veg in or alongside the mash, could actually make a marked improvement in the meal and take it to a new, healthier level.
Use the basic recipe, small tweaks and tips below to take your sausage & mash from good to better!
How are your sausage and mash skills?
Getting
started
I’m just starting out.
Next
Level
I’m ready to take it to the next level.
Engaging
Kids
How can I get my kids involved and interested?
Getting Started
Sausage and mash is a classic for a reason
It is tasty, filling and affordable.
Here is a simple recipe for sausage & mash which you can use as a base and build on over time…
Sausage & Mash
Claire Wright
Ingredients:
Sausages or veggie alternative (1-2 per person is the aim, but it may take some time to get there if you are used to more)
Potatoes (1 large or 2 medium per person)
Optional gravy or condiments
Optional frozen peas, sweetcorn or green beans
Method:
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Cook the sausages according to package instructions (usually 20-30 mins in the oven or until golden and cooked through in a pan or under the grill – make sure they are cooked all the way through).
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Peel and chop the potatoes (the size of the chunks doesn’t matter as much as the fact that they are all very roughly the same size). Bring a pan of water to the boil. Once bubbling, add the potato chunks and cook until soft (depending on the size of the chunks, usually 5-15 mins or until a knife inserted into a chunk cuts through easily).
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Drain the potatoes, leave for a minute to dry out slightly, then mash, adding a little seasoning and oil or butter or milk if you feel it needs it.
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Cook the frozen veg according to package instructions, if using.
There is no need to go any further with this recipe until you are confident with it and feel up for the next step.
Feeling ready? Let’s see how you can get your next small victory without battles…
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
Kids in the kitchen
The eventual aim, if possible, is to get kids in the kitchen. Don’t worry, this doesn’t have to mean they are with you from start-to-end creating mess and rising stress levels! It can be as simple as giving them one small job (stirring, measuring, pouring, grating, chopping…) ideally involving veg. They can come in to do their little bit, and have fun with you for a few minutes. Getting them involved, making it playful and praising them plenty for their involvement, perhaps even serving it as dinner they “made”, makes it much more likely they will eat the food offered, not to mention teaching them important life skills. Find ideas, safety tips, videos and even a free chart in our Kids in the Kitchen section here.
Activities
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.
Sensory
Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.
NEXT LEVEL
I Want To Improve My Sausage & Mash
If you are feeling confident with your favourite sausage & mash recipe, but you’re wondering if there are some small tweaks you could make for the better, this is for you.
We’ve outlined some simple stages for continually improving on a basic sausage and mash recipe to get you from good to great. Find where you feel your current recipe sits and see if the next step is something you could aim for. You don’t have to go any further, but if you choose to, make sure you are feeling confident with this new stage before you try the next one.
And remember, the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! These changes and swaps can take as long as is needed if your family isn’t ready for big changes all in one go. Small simple improvements over time may not even be noticed.
Add veg
Aim for 2 handfuls of veg per person in the long-run, but it’s better to go slowly and get there eventually than to rush to the finish line and find no one is ready to get there with you.
- Keep veg simple – frozen peas, broad beans, sweetcorn, sliced carrots, green beans or chargrilled veg can just be heated in the microwave, oven or pan according to packet instructions and served as is with the meal, or with a little seasoning and butter to add some flavour.
- If you are using fresh veg, be aware of cooking times – if your sausages are roasting for 25 mins, try chopping some root veg, tossing in a little oil & salt and roasting for 10-20 mins before adding the sausages to keep it easy. Or wilt some greens at the last minute!
- Mash is an easy place to add a little veg and increase over time – veg like cauliflower, celeriac or swede are cheap veggies that can be added to the potato while it cooks and mashed in, slowly adding more over time.
- Any veg can work here, but try to keep it simple, avoiding complex recipes for side dishes that might not be worth the extra effort. If nothing else, just serving a side salad or some raw veg on the side is a great last-minute step!
Don’t forget that the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! There’s no rush, and no pressure in not getting to 2 portions per serve.
Batch cooking
Once you are happy with your recipe, why not batch cook and freeze extra to save you future time, effort and money? Freeze some cooked sausages, prepped mash and a simple side for up to 3 months and just reheat to piping hot to serve!
Not sure if batch cooking is for you? People often think batch cooking means you have to have a big freezer and a slow cooker. But while those things can be helpful, they’re definitely not essential. Find out more about how to start small with batch cooking in our guide.
engaging kids
Play is essential!
Think of children helping in the kitchen as a role play game with four essential ingredients for maximise effect. One of the best ways to develop a love of veg in kids is to get them involved in the prep of the veg. Not only is cooking an essential life skill for kids to learn, but it’s a great, fun way to get them engaging with healthy foods!
Cooking with kids
One of the best ways to develop a love of veg in kids is to get them involved in the prep of the veg. Not only is cooking an essential life skill for kids to learn, but it’s a great, fun way to get them engaging with healthy foods! They don’t have to be involved in the whole process especially when they are very young (let’s keep the mess to a minimum!), just give them 1-2 smaller jobs they can own with some supervision.
If you are making sausage & mash, why not get younger kids helping make some simple veg sides with frozen veg, pushing microwave buttons or setting oven temperatures, and stirring through seasoning or butter when it’s cooked. They could help you mash the potatoes with some cooked cauli, root veg or beans, too.
Older kids might be ready to learn how to chop some fresh veg to serve on the side, or make a half-and-half mash with you using cauliflower, root veg or beans with the potatoes!
See if they can tick off
Arts & crafts
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging veg-based arts & crafts can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory.
Use these arts & crafts as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. While you make your sausage and mash, why not set them up with our peas cut out and colour page?
Games & puzzles
Like arts & crafts, games & puzzles are a very safe way to get veggies to become more familiar and takes any pressure off eating or engaging their senses around veg for now.
A great place to start with sausages and mash might be our Pea-doku game!
Sensory
Sensory engagement with veg is possibly the best way to get children to slowly become more familiar with a veg. Take away the pressure to taste for now (and remember that ‘tasting’ could be expanded to include sniffing, licking and smelling) and instead encourage exploring a veg with a sense of smell, hearing, touch or sight.
Why not start with some raw, steamed or boiled, and roasted cauliflower and get them to describe what they taste – does it remind them of anything? Do they taste the same, or different? Is roasted sweeter? Is raw strongly flavoured? If they aren’t up for eating them, that’s fine. Tell them that trying can mean licking or sniffing, too. The only rule is they can’t just describe it as “gross”, they have to use descriptive language to explain why (e.g. “I don’t like the raw one because it is too crunchy, and the steamed one is too white, but the roasted one was sweet so that one was ok”). See if they want to add some to the mash, or serve on the side after having engaged with them.
Serving
If your kids aren’t ready to be in the kitchen helping with part of the prep or cooking process, why not give them a job around the serving that could help them feel involved in the meal?
A crafty kid may like to design a beautiful menu, one who likes to help can lay the table. One may like to help you plate up the food, another may love to give the meal a theme! If you can (and we know it’s not always possible), try to eat with the kids, as they are much more likely to eat healthier food if they see it being eaten (and enjoyed!) by their families.
Why not let your child be in charge of planning the veg sides and picking which veg to add to the mash. Perhaps they want corn on the cob and to skip the mash entirely for sweet potato chips instead! Maybe they want to make the green beans side by cooking in the microwave then frying for a minute in garlic and butter with your help. Make sure to praise them for their choices as you pile them on your own plate, it may encourage them to try some on theirs!
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