Slow Cooker Sausage And Bean Casserole

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Slow Cooker Sausage & Bean Casserole. Introducing you to a hearty slow cooker sausage casserole with both beans and potatoes. Loaded with butcher’s sausages, tomatoes, white beans, potatoes, and peas.

Not only will you love the flavours of this hearty slow cooker sausage casserole, but you will also love how many mouths it feeds and how you can reheat the leftovers in the slow cooker the next day.

This slow cooker sausage casserole recipe is an update on a 2015 recipe. We have made the recipe more frugal, added extra ingredients, made it even easier to prep and updated photos for you.

Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole

Sausages have always been one of my favourite comfort foods. On the English breakfast, in a sausage sandwich, in the pressure cooker for instant pot bangers and mash and the list goes on and on.

But when I made a sausage sandwich or a fry up, it often feels like a waste of the sausages. As you need so many sausages for each person that you are feeding.

However, make a slow cooker sausage casserole and you can stretch a small batch of sausages from the butchers to feed several people. Then if you are just a family of four for example, you can purposely make my large sausage and bean casserole and it will be enough for two mealtimes.

What is also fantastic about making a homemade slow cooker sausage casserole is how you can dump everything into the slow cooker and come back to it later.

Perfect for those days you would normally order a takeaway, because its late and you simply don’t have the energy to cook.

Even though a slow cooker sausage casserole is something I regularly cook, I also appreciate many of you are beginners when it comes to a sausage casserole, therefore I have answered all your burning questions before diving into the slow cooker recipe.

Plus, as well as our free newsletter, we also have a free air fryer mini course. It is ideal for air fryer beginners or those that want to get more confident with their air fryer. The free course runs for 5 days with a new lesson delivered each day to your inbox.

Can You Cook Sausages In A Slow Cooker?

Yes, you can. Sausages are one of those amazing foods that works very well in the slow cooker. You can cut sausages into small chunks or cook whole sausages too. You can also use the slow cooker to brown your sausages if you have a slow cooker like this one that I own.

Can I Put Frozen Sausages In Slow Cooker?

No, you can’t. It is not recommended to put any type of frozen meat in the slow cooker. This is because the slow cooker doesn’t get hot enough to fight off the bacteria.

Instead defrost your sausages prior to making this sausage casserole recipe.

Can You Cook Sausages From Raw In A Slow Cooker?

Yes, you can. Sausages like many meats, can be cooked from raw in the slow cooker. Then the slow cooker cooks them for you.

But with a homemade sausage casserole we associate it with browned beautiful looking sausages that we have made in a cast iron cooking dish.

I prefer to brown mine in the slow cooker first, but I can just as easily add them to the slow cooker totally raw without any browning.

Its all about personal choice.

Slow Cooker Sausage & Bean Casserole

My favourite type of sausage casserole is to make a slow cooker sausage and bean version. You are then using the beans to fill out the casserole and make it stretch further and feed more people.

You can use either baked beans, or you can use haricot, or any other white bean can that is sold in water. I much prefer haricot beans as they are not high in sugar like baked beans.

You can also fill it out further (and make an even bigger portion) by adding in frozen sweetcorn and frozen peas, which we will be showing you how to do today.

Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole With Potatoes

Another popular version is to make a slow cooker sausage casserole with potatoes. This is a frugal way my grandad would make it, using potatoes he had personally grown on his allotment.

You can slice up potatoes to a similar shape as roasted potatoes and then they can cook with the sausages in the slow cooker.

I will then use a fork and do a fork test on the tenderness of the potatoes and that is when I know whether or not the sausage and bean casserole is cooked or not.

Sausage Casserole Ingredients

Sausages – I am sure its no surprise that sausages are getting cooked in the slow cooker! You can use any sausages you want. What I did was buy some different flavoured thick sausages from the butchers and used a mixture. One thing I would say though, is try to avoid Richmond sausages or frozen sausage brands. They are high in fat and make your casserole incredibly greasy.

Beans – Any white beans will work well in this recipe. You can also use butter beans for a better texture. Always drain the beans first before adding them to the slow cooker otherwise the casserole will become too watery.

Tomato – This dish is loaded with tomatoes. Using both tinned tomatoes and fresh tomatoes. If you have not guessed, I love tomatoes. If you don’t want to use fresh tomatoes, then double up the tinned.

Potatoes – Whilst many have their sausage casserole with either beans or potatoes, I add both! It makes the sausage casserole feed more people and gives it a much heartier texture.

Onion – I also love to add onion to my casseroles and stews. But this is 100% personal choice, and you can decide if this is for you or not.

Extras – For colour and to feed more mouths I like to add in sweetcorn and peas too. You might have some extras you love in a casserole such as leeks, carrots, celery etc. Just go with whatever you have in.

Seasoning – The flavours are amazing in this dish. Beyond the usual salt and pepper, we also have thyme and mixed herbs.

Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this sausage casserole slow cooker recipe, it has just been our Crockpot. We have this one and it does an amazing job and is also ideal for browning your sausages before slow cooking begins.

How To Make Sausage Casserole In Slow Cooker?

• Sauté. The first step is to peel and dice your onion and garlic and sauté in the slow cooker.
• Browning. Next, I love to brown my sausages and to add a bit of colour to them. Its also a great time to get some of the sausage juices in the cooking pot.
• Mix. Add all the ingredients into the slow cooker (apart from your beans, peas, and corn) and mix well.
• Cook. Slow cook until you have tender potatoes, your sausages are perfectly cooked and the house smells of wonderful homemade sausage casserole.
• Extras. Remove the sausages and put to one side. Stir and add in drained beans, peas, and corn. Mix well. Add the sausages on top and cook for a final hour.

How Long Do Sausages Take To Cook In Slow Cooker?

You can cook sausages in a slow cooker on high in three hours. Though note, this is how long it would take to do just sausages with some tomatoes and not a full slow cooker casserole or stew.

That is because the slow cooker is not at its capacity. See below for how long to cook sausages in a sausage casserole.

How Long To Cook Sausage Casserole In Slow Cooker?

The cooking time for our best sausage casserole is JUST 5 hours on high in the slow cooker. Or if you are prepping the casserole before work, to eat when you get home, you can do it with a 9 hour cook on low.

Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole Slimming World

As I write up this easy sausage casserole slow cooker recipe, I am in the middle of re-doing my slimming world SP week. So, I get slimming world rules and get that you want to binge on a sausage casserole whilst on slimming world.

Looking through the sausage casserole ingredients list the items that are NOT syn free are:

• Sausages
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The oil is only used for browning the sausages prior to cooking the slow cooker sausage and bean casserole.

Therefore, if you don’t brown the sausages, you can ditch the oil.

Then, swap our premium butcher’s sausages for slimming world syn free sausages (read our article about slimming world sausages here) and then you have a slimming world friendly yummy sausage casserole recipe.

Can You Freeze Sausage Casserole?

Yes, you can, and I did freeze our leftover sausage casserole. I love the idea of cooking once, eating twice. The idea that you make a larger portion meal for dinner and then freeze the leftovers for another day. Or simply fridge the slow cooker after dinner and cook for an hour on high in the slow cooker to reheat.

If freezing your sausage casserole, then wait until cool and load into appropriate freezer containers. Then label up the container and load into the freezer.

Then consume within 3 months and remember to fully thaw before reheating in the slow cooker.

What To Serve With Sausage Casserole?

Not very slimming world friendly, but I love my sausage casserole with some homemade bread rolls to dunk in.  I will make our air fryer bread rolls and then serve them with the sausage casserole and often there will be some left for sandwiches the next day.

Another great option is to pair it with some Ninja Foodi Mashed Potatoes or some air fryer frozen green beans. Or do both and then you can get three meals out of your casserole instead of two.

More Stews & Casseroles Using The Slow Cooker

• Slow Cooker Beef Goulash
• Slow Cooker Beef & Pumpkin Stew
• Slow Cooker Mediterranean Chicken Casserole
• Slow Cooker Lamb Tagine
• Slow Cooker Lamb Hotpot

Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!