This vegan sausage casserole makes delicious & comforting family meal with lentils and cavolo nero (black kale) adding extra goodness. Super filling & satisfying, perfect cold weather warmer-upper!
This humble vegan sausage casserole recipe is a proper family favourite in our house which is a great thing considering that it is stuffed full to the brim with the good stuff.
Vegan sausages, lots of finely chopped veggies, green lentils and gorgeous cavolo nero make this hearty stew super comforting, delicious and really nutritious too!
Great thing about this vegan stew is that it's very adaptable as far veg goes so you can use up whatever odds and ends you've got in your fridge to add bulk and nutrition.
Beside your staples like onion, garlic, celery and carrots I like to throw in finely chopped broccoli and cavolo nero stalks. No waste here!
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✔️ Why should you make it?
- Delicious and comforting family meal
- Hearty and filling
- Nutritious
- Really easy to adapt with what veggies you've got available
- Perfect for meal prep
- Cheap to make, "clean the fridge" type of meal
- Fantastic warmer-upper on a cold day
🥘 Ingredients and substitutions
Vegan Sausages - Feel free to use your favourite brand of vegan sausages. I used pack of Richmond Meat-Free Sausages (UK).
Green Lentils - They're absolutely perfect in this lovely vegan casserole and add not only substance but also heaps of nutritional goodness, don't require soaking and cook pretty quickly too. I buy mine in bulk as use them a lot in my kitchen.
Cavolo Nero - One of my favourite types of kale with lovely deep colour and earthy, very slightly bitter flavour. It can be easily substituted with kale or even shredded cabbage, whichever you prefer or can get your hands on.
Veggies - I use onions, garlic, carrots, celery, broccoli & cavolo nero stalks as I really don't like to see anything wasted. All these finely chopped veggies make fantastic base for this and in fact any vegan stew and casserole.
Feel free to swap and change, perhaps using finely chopped parsnips, leeks, whatever you've got in your fridge that needs using up.
Vegetable Stock - Homemade or one from cube or powder is fine.
Dried Herbs - Woody herbs like thyme and rosemary are perfect in this stew. Feel free to use fresh equivalents instead.
Passata - For extra flavour and richness. You could substitute it with some tinned chopped tomatoes if you'd rather. I would use the entire tin.
Apple Cider Vinegar - For a bit of acidity, you can use lemon juice here instead.
What is cavolo nero?
Cavolo nero also known as Tuscan kale, black kale, and black cabbage amongst other names is a brassica closely related to kale.
Originated in Italy but now successfully grown in the UK this super hardy and nutritious veg can be used in a similar way you would use kale.
It works wonderfully in soups (famously added to Italian minestrone and ribollita), stews and casseroles but also as the star on its own simply braised, steamed or sautéed like in my Cavolo Nero with Chilli, Garlic and Crispy Capers.
For best cooking results you should take the leaves off the woody stalks first which (after chopping them very finely) can be used as base in soups, stews and casseroles.
Check out my full guide on How to Cook Cavolo Nero for all the details, tips and tricks regarding preparing and cooking this delicious vegetable.
🍽 Equipment
Non-stick, lidded pan or even better, cast iron casserole style pan will be best for your casserole.
There are so many, great looking, quality and inexpensive casserole pans out there now that you don't necessarily need to splash out on Le Creuset (as great as they are).
For all the veggie chopping you might find food processor useful here but good quality and sharp chef's knife will do the job too!
💭 Top Tips
- Do all the prep work first. Wash and chop your veggies and prepare all the other ingredients so that everything is ready when you need it to be and there is no mad dashing around the kitchen looking for things.
- Make sure you do rinse dried lentils on the sieve under running water to get rid all of the dust and debris. They might look clean but trust me, they aren't!
- Instead of cooking cavolo nero in the casserole I sometimes steam it separately and then stir it into the final dish towards the end right before adding back the sausages. Doing it this way keeps the colour that bit more vibrant.
- I usually add whole sausages back into the pan but feel free to chop them up into pieces instead.
- If you prefer your casserole more "saucy" feel free to adjust the amount of stock and/or passata accordingly.
🥡 Storing and freezing vegan sausage casserole
This delicious casserole is perfect for batch cooking and can be kept in the fridge for 3-4 days.
It also freezes well but do ensure that when freezing, your sausages are well immersed in the casserole to prevent them from getting freezer burn.
Defrost in the fridge overnight before reheating until piping hot.
🍴Serving suggestions
In our house we absolutely adore it simply with chunky slices of crusty bread with some homemade vegan pesto on top. Homemade sourdough or my vegan soda bread are our go to loaves here.
You could also serve it with mash or jacket potatoes for equally delicious and hearty offering.
Oh, and don't forget a sprinkling of delicious vegan parmesan, so quick and easy to make and adds so much flavour!
❓ FAQs
Yes of course. Vegan sausage casserole is perfect for batch cooking and meal prep and will even taste better once reheated the following day. Make sure to store it in the fridge (it will last 3-4 days) and reheat until piping hot. See: Storing and freezing.
Yes you can. You will want to reduce the amount of stock if using tinned lentils though or casserole will turn into soup. You will still want to cook your veggies in the stock for at least 15-20 minutes before adding drained and rinsed lentils into the stew to warm them up.
Any type of kale will be fine here as well as shredded cabbage.
Absolutely! Simply cook them according to the instructions on the packaging and then add to the stew as per recipe below.
🔪 How to make Vegan Sausage Casserole
Ingredient quantities & detailed instructions to be found in recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Heat tablespoon of oil in a lidded non-stick pan or cast-iron casserole and fry vegan sausages until nice and brown. Take sausages out onto a plate.
Add remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan followed by all the chopped veggies and sautée them stirring frequently until they start to soften, approx 5-8 min.
Add dried herbs, vinegar, dried and rinsed lentils, passata and stock and stir well. Season to taste.
Bring to boil, turn down the heat and simmer, covered until lentils are tender (approximately 30 min) stirring occasionally. You might have to add splash of water or stock if they get too dry.
You can either cook cavolo nero separately and stir it into the final dish or add it after about 20 minutes into cooking your lentils to cook in a casserole.
Add mustard and stir it in.
Once lentils are cooked and cavolo nero has softened add back your cooked vegan sausages for 5 minutes to warm them up.
Garnish your vegan sausage casserole with some fresh thyme or chopped parsley and enjoy!
Have you tried my Vegan Sausage Casserole with Lentils & Cavolo Nero?
Please consider giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in recipe card below.
😋 More delicious vegan family dinner recipes
One pot bean and sausage pasta
Easy Lentil Ragu (Vegan)
Vegan butternut squash mac and cheese
Celeriac and chard vegetable curry
Vegan chilli sin carne
📋 Recipe
Vegan Sausage Casserole with Lentils & Cavolo Nero
Ingredients
- 8 vegan sausages I used Richmond Meat-Free Sausages (UK)
- 1 red or yellow onion chopped
- 2 carrots chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced or finely chopped
- 1 celery stick chopped
- 1 leftover broccoli stalks (chopped) optional
- leftover cavolo nero stalks (chopped) optional
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoon (heaped) of mustard I used Dijon
- 300 g dried green lentils well rinsed
- 1 ltr hot vegetable stock from cube is fine
- 250 g passata see notes
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 200 g cavolo nero or standard kale taken off the stalks and roughly chopped
- fresh parsley or thyme for garnish
- 2 tablespoon rapeseed/olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Prepare all the veggies by finely chopping them in a food processor or by hand and putting to one side.
- Take cavolo nero leaves off the stalks and roughly chop/slice.
- Heat tablespoon of oil in a lidded non-stick pan or cast-iron casserole and fry vegan sausages until nice and brown. Take sausages out onto a plate.
- Add remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan followed by all the chopped veggies and sautée them stirring frequently until they start to soften, approximately 5-8 min.
- Add dried herbs, vinegar, dried and rinsed lentils, passata and stock and stir well. Season to taste.
- Bring to boil, turn down the heat and simmer, covered until lentils are tender (approximately 30 min) stirring occasionally. You might have to add splash of water or stock if they get too dry.
- You can either cook cavolo nero separately and stir it into the final dish or add it after about 20 minutes into cooking your lentils to cook in a casserole.
- Add mustard and stir it in.
- Once lentils are cooked and cavolo nero has softened add back your cooked vegan sausages for 5 minutes to warm them up.
- Garnish your vegan sausage casserole with some fresh thyme or chopped parsley and enjoy!
Notes
- Nutritional information is approximate, based on 4 servings and it should be treated as a rough guideline only.
- Feel free to use any of your favourite vegan sausages here.
- Use different veggies if you want. Substitute onion with leek, use different root veg rather than carrot and feel free to leave out broccoli and kale stalks here although I think they work perfectly as a base in a stew.
- Tinned chopped tomatoes will work well here in place of passata. Use the entire tin.
- Feel free to substitute dried her with fresh if you've got them available.
- When in a hurry you could use tinned lentils instead. See FAQs
- Leftovers will store in the fridge for 3-4 days. Freezer friendly.
- Do all the prep work first. Wash and chop your veggies and prepare all the other ingredients.
- Make sure you do rinse dried lentils on the sieve under running water to get rid all of the dust and debris.
- Instead of cooking cavolo nero in the casserole I sometimes steam it separately and then stir it into the final dish towards the end right before adding back the sausages. Doing it this way keeps the colour that bit more vibrant.
- Feel free to chop sausages up into pieces.
- If you prefer your casserole more "saucy" feel free to adjust the amount of stock and/or passata accordingly.
Nutrition
Update Notes: This post was originally published in October 2017 and republished in November 2021 with updated photos, recipe card, process photos, tips and better layout improving user experience. Recipe itself has been updated to include plant based ingredients only.
Katie Bryson says
This looks totally ideal for a Bonfire Night Banger recipe to warm everyone up after the fireworks - super tasty! Thanks so much for pitching in for this month's round of Simple and in Season xxx
joskitchenlarder says
Thanks Katie! 🙂 It is a lovely warming recipe for sure plus sausages and lentils goes so well together too! xx
Jacqui says
Oh I do love a sausage and lentil casserole made one only this week. The idea of adding some cavalo nero is a good one Jo will definitely have to try your version. Thank you for linking to #CookBlogShare
joskitchenlarder says
Thanks Jacqui! I really love this casserole and thought it was high time to make it as it has been a while. Cavolo nero goes so well in it! x
Naomi says
This looks lush, I will have to try it! #BrillBlogPosts
joskitchenlarder says
Aw, thank you Naomi! I hope you like it. 🙂
Corina Blum says
I think lentils and sausages were just made for each other. This is a lovely dish and it has also reminded me that it is quite a while since I made a lentil dish. I know I've got a couple of packets at the back of the cupboard so I really should dig them out soon and make something. Thanks so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice! x
joskitchenlarder says
Thank you Corina! I totally agree, lentils and sausages are marriage made in heaven, such comforting earthy flavours, perfect for this time of year too. x