Mexican sausages

This is a recipe that I have been making for years, even before children, because it was a favourite of my hubby's . . definitely long before my Thermie came onto the scene. But of course, like everything else, if a recipe is to remain in my repertoire these days, it must be converted for the Thermomix! This recipe was originally passed on to me by my mother-in-law, but has seen quite a few tweaks since then. Check the 'variation ideas' below for even more tweaks you can make :)

Although sausages are not something I like my family to eat too often, this is a really quick, simple and yummy way to serve them up . . . and my girls devour this meal. It's also a little more nutritious than just a sausage in a bun :) Just make sure you use good quality real sausages. We like to use beef but you could use chicken or pork. 

Mexican Sausages

ingredients

6-8 thin good quality beef sausages

1 onion, halved

1 clove garlic

1 x 425g can organic chopped tomato

200g organic tomato passata 

120g filtered water

1 tbsp TM vegetable or chicken stock paste

1 x can organic chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained & rinsed

a dollop of sweet chilli sauce (or chilli powder, to taste)

½ tsp ground cumin

80g organic baby spinach, roughly chopped

fresh chopped parsley, optional

to serve(optional)

150g white basmati rice (more if you prefer)

400g filtered water

method

1. Cook sausages in a frypan on high heat or on the BBQ until browned and cooked through. Remove and drain on absorbent paper. You can easily cook the sausages ahead of time and keep in the fridge until needed. If you do this, you may need to add a little extra time for re-heating them in the sauce at step 6.
2. Place onion and garlic clove in TM bowl and chop 5 seconds on speed 7. Scrape down sides.
3. Add a dash of olive oil and sauté for 3 minutes at 100°C on speed 1.
4. Add can tomatoes and sauce (passata), water, 1 tbsp vege stock concentrate, chickpeas, sweet chilli sauce and cumin.
5. Cook for 15 minutes at 100°C reverse + speed soft.
6. Slice sausages 1-2 cm to your preference, add to the TM bowl and continue to cook on 100°C reverse, speed soft for an extra 3 minutes. You can add the spinach leaves at this stage too or if you are serving up in a large server,  place the spinach leaves at the bottom of your dish and pour the Mexican sausages over the top. 

variation ideas

• Add ½ tsp sweet paprika + ½ tsp cinnamon
• Add chunks red & yellow capsicum (peppers) at step 5 or steam in the varoma over the top of the sauce and stir through in the final step.
• We like to cook the sausages on the BBQ or on the stovetop, but you could steam the sausages in the Varoma as you cook the sauce then slice up and add at step 6.
• Serve with steamed basmati rice, which you can cook first and keep warm in a thermosaver. Chickpeas are a good source of carbohydrates so I don't serve up rice with this meal. 

no thermomix?

Cook sausages on the BBQ or in a frypan and prepare the meal in a deep non-stick pan on the stovetop. Use a stock cube in place of the TM stock paste.


nutrition tid bid
Chickpeas or garbanzo beans as they are also called, are a fabulous source of insoluble dietary fibre which supports the growth of healthy bacteria in your large intestine. They are also a very good source of protein and relatively low in kilojoules. Studies have shown that regular consumption of chickpeas has a favourable influence on blood sugar and insulin levels as well as triglycerides and cholesterol. They are also a potent source of antioxidant phytonutrients and manganese, aswell as a very good source of copper, phosphorous and iron. The home cooked variety are rich in B vitamins and folate which are mostly destroyed by high temperatures during the canning process. Recent studies have shown a positive relationship between chickpeas and weight management due to their beneficial effect on food satiety (www.whfoods.com), which essentially means that they fill you up for longer. All in all many good reasons to eat these scrummy nut-like, buttery beans regularly :)


Always look for BPA and additive free cans of tomatoes and chickpeas or cook them up yourself. Just be sure to pre-soak the chickpeas for at least 4 hours before cooking to reduce phytic acid levels which have an unfavourable effect on digestion and absorption of nutrients. If you are making chickpea flour from dried chickpeas, it is a good idea to soak and dehydrate the beans first for this same reason. 

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