Northern Irish Vegetable Roll

Vegetable Roll is confusing to folk from outside Northern Ireland.  Why?  Because it's mostly meat!  More correctly, it's sausage meat and vegetables, normally served fried or grilled in rounds as part of an Ulster Fry, Northern Ireland's favourite cooked breakfast.  Imagine slices of black pudding, but made from sausage meat instead of blood.

Since moving to Manchester, I've craved vegetable roll a lot, but never been able to find it.  One of the Asda stores nearby did have an experiment where they replaced the butchery counter with a franchise from a Northern Irish butcher and for one glorious year, vegetable roll was available whenever I wanted it... but sadly it didn't last.  I've been trying to make my own for a while, but the one recipe I found for it online tasted wrong and included odd ingredients I wouldn't normally have (what on earth is mace??!!).  Eventually I started experimenting and this is the version I've liked the most.

Ingredients

900g Sausages
(2 packs - these should traditionally be beef, but I like Asda Butcher's Selection Pork & Tomato)
2 Spring Onions
2 Baby Leeks (they had none today, so I used about half a normal leek)
120g Fine Breadcrumbs (yes, I cheat on this and use packet breadcrumbs, but I'm lazy!)
Pinch of salt and black pepper

Method

1. Take the skins off the sausages and put the sausage meat in a bowl.

2. Finely chop the spring onions and leeks.  I use an electric chopper (a bit like a tiny food processor) that I picked up for about a tenner.  It makes life easier and gives you nice tiny pieces.

3. Add the chopped leeks and spring onions, along with the breadcrumbs to the bowl with the sausage meat, and add a little salt and pepper.

4. Time to get your hands dirty!  Knead the whole mixture with your hands until it all comes together.  It's done when the vegetables are fairly evenly spread and you can no longer feel the grittiness of the breadcrumbs.

5. Turn out the mixture on to a board and form into a thick sausage shape, about 6-8 cm thick.

6. Wrap the mixture tightly in cling film.  If you need to, roll it while in the cling film to get a nice round shape.  Then chill the sausage in the fridge for a few hours.

7.  Once chilled, cut the sausage into rounds around 1-2 cm thick.  If you're not using it all at once, it will freeze really well.  To cook, fry or grill the rounds for around 5 minutes on each side until cooked through.  Or do what I do, oven bake it at 180℃ for about 15-20 minutes - this results in a bit of a drier meat, but I love the crunchy crust this gives the outside.