oven-baked sausage risotto - super-easy one-dish meal

... i'm coming up to my 5th year of blogging and since i've been so busy in my 'real' life i've begun reflecting on what this blog really means to me. I started because I had a passion for food and a love for praise and of course I wanted to share my recipes but as I was welcomed into the food blogging community that changed a little and part of it became about that community and enjoying all that has to offer. It was a funny couple of years but once I had weeded out those whom I felt were a negative draw on my passion for the process I settled down into a comfortable rhythm. Now, as well as all that what I love most about blogging is the writing. I adore writing. Yes, sometimes it's hard to find a topic and getting into the stride of a piece can be tricky but once i've achieved that and locked myself away somewhere quiet I absolutely love the process...

... and of course now I have a blog that is both a diary of the past 5 years of my life and also a beautifully crafted recipe book, a place for others to pluck out delicious morsels of ideas... and of course sometimes I feel like this blog is an on-line reference storage facility, its sole purpose to facilitate The Viking should the zombie apocalypse rain down on us and I find myself un able to make it to the kitchen...

oven-baked sausage risotto - super-easy one-dish meal
this is dish is so easy to make that even if we had the hoards of the un-dead banging at the windows we'd still have time to make something gorgeous and sit down to a meal before picking up our machete's... not officially a risotto it still does everything a risotto does and has all the ingredients to produce a stunning comfort meal... I make a veggie version in exactly the same way just using veggies sausages and plenty of olive oil instead of the natural fat provided by the pork... i've used some gorgeous new season baby carrots in here as they look so pretty but feel free to jazz this up in any way you choose...

6 good quality pork sausages - I used the Sainsbury's Pork and Leek Taste the Difference range
1 medium onion - chopped
2 garlic cloves - unpeeled
1 medium leek - chopped
a handful of green beans - chopped in half
a handful of new season baby carrots - halved
1 and 1/2 pints good quality vegetable stock - I use Marigold Swiss Bouillon
1/2 pint white wine
salt and pepper and fresh herbs to taste - I used 3 twigs of lemon thyme

place the cut sausages, all the veg and seasoning in a large oven-proof dish, cover with foil and bake in the oven on 160C for 30 mins

take it out of the oven, take off the foil and pop it back into the oven for 10 minutes for everything to brown a little then take it out once more and stir it all together, add the rice, two thirds of the stock and the white wine, stir together, cover with the foil and pop it back into the oven for another 20 mins

take it out of the oven, remove the foil, stir well - you may need to add a little more stock at this stage or it may be perfect... pop it back in the oven for about 5 mins more without the foil just to add a little more colour and then remove... let it settle for a few mins before serving as it will be piping hot.

because i've used plenty of lemon thyme in this dish I am entering it into the lovely Cooking with Herbs bloggers link-up which is hosted so honestly by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and which this month has the theme of Spring Herbs

eat and of course, enjoy!