Vegan Sausage Birra - a Crock-Pot recipe for slow cooking

What is a birra?

You may be asking what a birra is. I did. In fact I had to Google it to find out what a birra is and it turns out it's just a recipe containing beer. 

So it definitely sounds much fancier than it is.

What we have here is a sort of sausage stew. 

The sausages and onions are slow cooked in a spicy tomato beer sauce. It's actually really tasty.

I took a quick photo of it as you can see, before I lost the light.

It gets dark so quickly at this time of year, doesn't it? 

It's the bane of food bloggers lives.

Photos taken in artificial light are just awful (unless you have a properly equipped photography studio with expensive lights), so we always take our photos in daylight and there's just not enough of it in Scotland in November.

Once I'd finished taking my photos I popped the birra back in the slow cooker to keep warm while I cooked some potatoes and peas.

Well I say potatoes and peas, but I was too busy looking at my photos and left Graham to see to the potatoes. 

I totally forgot to remind him about the peas, so we just ate this sausage stew with mash. 

It was still comforting and very tasty, even without the veg.

related - Slow Cooker Vegan Irish Stew

This recipe was adapted from a recipe created by Chef Neil Rankin for Crock-Pot. 

The original was made with lamb and to my mind had way too much liquid in it for a slow cooker recipe. 

I decided to make mine with veggie sausages and red onion and I also cut the quantity of liquids down, crumbling a stock cube into the mixture instead of adding hot stock.

I left out the cloves and lime from the original recipe, which I wasn't keen on adding and I have to say I was really pleased with the flavour. 

It was a blessing that I didn't add that extra stock the original recipe called for or it would have been more like a runny soup. It had plenty of sauce with my tweaked recipe.

Related - Slow Cooker Vegan Stuffed Pasta

I created this recipe in my crock-pot. It's so good for throwing ingredients in and walking away.

 For this recipe I fried the onions until soft and the sausages until brown before adding the other ingredients to the slow cooker. 

The slow cooker I'm using these days is from the original Crock-Pot brand which has an aluminium inner pot which you can start off cooking in directly on the hob.

Related - Slow Cooker Triple Tomato & Spinach Pasta

Crock-Pot

My crock-pot is super light and has three settings. Low, high and a keep warm function.

I have the 4.5L DuraCeramic Crock-Pot Slow Cooker which is big enough for a family of four,  although sometime the recipes do stretch to six. 

The multi-purpose aluminium pot can be used on all hob types. It's easy to clean and free from PFOA and PTFE non-stick chemicals.

Crock-pot is the original slow cooker. Launched in North America in 1971 and is the leading slow cooker brand.

Related - Luxury Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese

Yield: Serves 4-6Author: Jacqueline Meldrum

Vegan Sausage Birra

A slow cooked veggie sausage stew cooked in the slow cooker with a spicy tomato and beer sauce. Serve with mashed potatoes and vegetables for an excellent Sunday dinner.

prep time: 20 MINScook time: 3 hourtotal time: 3 hours and 20 mins

ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 red onions, sliced
• 12 veggie sausages, halved
• 200 ml passata
• 330 ml light beer
• 2 tbsp chipotle paste
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 vegetable stock cube, crumbled
• a good grinding of black pepper

instructions

1. Saute the onion in 1 tbsp of olive oil until soft, then set aside.
2. Cook the sausages in 1 tbsp of oil until brown, turning frequently.
3. Add the sausages and onions to the slow cooker then add all the other ingredients and stir.
4. Set your slow cooker to high and cook for 2-3 hours or set it to low for 4-6 hours.
5. If you don't have a slow cooker cook the same way until the sauce has reduced and thickened.
6. Serve with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables.
7. Enjoy!

fat
4.5

calories
307

sugar
4.8

carbs
16.9

protein
23.9

Created using The Recipes Generator

Try next - Slow Cooker Scottish Stovies

or

If you liked this recipe, try my roast vegetable, veggie sausage and chickpea bake? 

Note: For the purpose of display (and looking bonnie) I photographed my birra in a small casserole dish, but my dish was cooked in my slow cooker.



For more vegetarian and vegan slow cooker recipes, check out my page Easy Vegetarian and Vegan Slow Cooker Recipes

Disclosure: I developed this recipe for Crock-Pot UK. I was not required to write a positive review and any opinions are my own.