Spanish rice, for the wrong sausages

I've mentioned previously that I have a few quick and easy dinner options up my sleeve for the nights I get home late (or just feel lazy!). As we know, one is veggie burgers. Another is veggie sausages.

These sausages, to be precise:

These aren't something I would want to eat everyday, but they are dairy and egg free, high in protein (11g per sausage), a reasonable source of iron (15% of RDI per sausage), and very low in saturated fat. They also take about 2 minutes to cook. I can walk in the door at 7pm, put the oven on and some potatoes in the microwave, transfer the potatoes to the oven, have a shower, make some salad or steam some vegetables, cook the sausages, and have dinner done by 7.30pm.

Of course, if I was more organised, I would have made dinner the night before and just be re-heating leftovers. But there you are. Most of the time, I'm not!

The only problem with these sausages is that they look quite similar to two other products made by Sanitarium: the original veggie sausages (which are fine) and the hot dogs.

We discovered last week that we aren't a big fan of the hot dogs. I didn't intend to buy them, but somehow they ended up in our fridge instead of the BBQ sausages we usually select.

We tried them, but they just weren't the same. Unfortunately, after the initial trial, we still had half of the packet left. What to do?

Disguise them!

Vegetarian Spanish rice with sausages

This may not be anything like real Spanish rice, but I couldn't come up with a better name

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice (3 cups cooked)
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 100g tomato paste (I used 1 50g sachet low-salt & 1 50g sachet with pizza herbs, because they were what I had to hand, but any variety would be fine)
• 1 onion
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 sticks celery, diced
• 1 small red capsicum, diced
• 3 veggie sausages (or, in our case, hot dogs), chopped
• 1 tsp dried basil, or equivalent fresh
• 2 tsp oregano, or equivalent fresh
• Parsley and pepper, to serve
• Oil, for cooking vegetables, to taste

Instructions:

1. Prepare and cook the rice (or grain of choice) as per packet instructions.

2. While the rice is cooking, heat a large non-stick pan and saute the onions and garlic until just soft and starting to brown.

3. Add 1/4 cup of the stock and the carrot, celery and capsicum. Reduce heat and stir occasionally, until the vegetables are starting to soften. Add another 1/4 cup of stock and simmer on low heat for 5 - 10 minutes.

4. Add the remaining 1/2 cup stock and the basil and oregano to the large non-stick pan and keep over low heat.

5. In a separate non-stick pan or on a grill (or even in the bottom of a saucepan), lightly cook the chopped veggie sausages. I did mine for about 1.5 minutes, until they were just crisp, but some sausages may need longer.

6. Add the sausages, cooked rice and tomato paste to the vegetable mixture, and mix through to combine. Keep over low heat for a further 5 - 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

7. Serve sprinkled with fresh or dried parsley and pepper.

The verdict? Well, the hot dogs were still detectable. I didn't mind them in this format, but I think the dish would have been improved further by the sausages we usually buy. I think in future I'd also add chilli or paprika, as those flavourings would pair well with the dish.

What are your simple meals? Have you had accidental supermarket purchases that haven't quite worked out?

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