Sausages, Sweet Potato Mash, Onion Relish & Courgettes

Returning home to an empty fridge after being away always makes me want to run to Waitrose to stock up on goodies to cook. In fact the first week back led me to spend over £100 on food from Waitrose on top of the regular veg boxes I get from Abel and Cole and Riverford, and when you only have two mouths to feed that's a hell of a lot of food.

So I have been striving to make do only with the items I already have in the kitchen. This resulted in a summery sausage and mash recipe swapping potatoes with sweet potatoes, making an onion relish (as we had somehow consumed all the wine and beer that I was planning to use for gravy), with courgette ribbons on the side. To be honest the courgettes were just chucked in as I had so many from my veg box.

But you know, without the gravy and having more interesting greens on the plate gave this dish a summery feel. It was light and different from regular sausage mash as it had a sweetness from the potatoes and the relish. If you're going to re-create this, I would strongly recommend a strong tasting sausage. I went for pork and leek which was had strong enough flavours to live up to the sweetness in the dish. You know what would also be good? Borevors (South African Sausage) as the spices would match perfectly!

Ingredients
pack of Sausages
3 large sweet Potatoes
2 Courgettes
1 red Onion
3 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1 tbsp Sugar
spalsh of red Wine (I ended up using desert wine as I had no regular wine!)
knob of Butter
Salt & Pepper
dried Basil
Thyme leaves
1/2 Lemon

Recipe
Pre-heat your grill. Place sausages on a tray and grill for 5 minutes on each side.

Peel and dice your sweet potatoes and then boil in a pan of hot water until softened. Remember they cook faster than regular potatoes! When ready, drain in a colander, season with salt and pepper and mash with a knob of butter. You'll find the potatoes are really easy to mash but somewhat stringy, this is normal.

Using a mandolin or peeler, cut your courgettes into super thin slices to form ribbons. Heat a small frying pan with some oil and flash fry them, tossing basil as you fry. When they start to soften, a squeeze of lemon and take off the heat.

Cut your onion into thin slices and cook in a pan on low heat with oil or butter. When they have softened but not browned, add the liquids (Balsamic and Wine), sugar and thyme. Increase the heat and leave to simmer until reduced, the liquid will become syrupy. Serve immediately or store in a jar in the fridge until required.

Plate your dish with the sweet potatoes, sausages, a dollop of onion relish and ring of courgette ribbons. Enjoy! :)