Maple and Thyme Sausage Traybake for Supper

A traybake is the sort of supper that earns its place in a busy kitchen. Everything goes in one tin, the oven does the work, and the washing up amounts to a roasting tray and a chopping board. This version leans on the things British cooking does best in the colder months — proper sausages, earthy root vegetables, sharp apples — and gives them a lift with a maple and thyme glaze that caramelises at the edges and tastes far more considered than the effort involved.

It is a midweek dinner, but it is also the sort of thing you can put in the middle of the table on a Sunday with a bowl of mash and a jug of gravy, and nobody will feel short-changed. The maple syrup does double duty: it sweetens the glaze and helps the vegetables catch and brown rather than simply steam.

What to look for in the sausages

Sausages are the backbone here, so buy the best you reasonably can. Look for a meat content north of 80 per cent, and read the ingredients — you want pork, seasoning, perhaps a little rusk, not a long list of fillers. Cumberland or Lincolnshire sausages work beautifully, and a lightly herbed chipolata is good if you are feeding children who prefer a smaller sausage.

Avoid anything labelled "extra lean". You need a little fat to render out into the tin, because that fat is what flavours the vegetables and stops them drying out. If you are using a very lean sausage, add an extra tablespoon of oil to the tray.

Twist each sausage once or twice, or cut them in half, so you get more cut surfaces to brown. Those cut ends are where the maple glaze clings best.

The vegetables, and why the order matters

Root vegetables need a head start. Sausages cook in 30 minutes; a chunk of parsnip needs longer to go tender and golden. So the vegetables go in first, and the sausages join them after the initial blast of heat.

• 2 red onions, cut into thick wedges through the root so they hold together
• 500g carrots, peeled and cut into batons about the thickness of your thumb
• 400g parsnips, peeled, quartered lengthways, woody core cut out
• 400g waxy potatoes, halved or quartered, skins left on
• 2 eating apples, such as Cox or Braeburn, cored and cut into sixths — skin on

Keep the pieces roughly the same size. A tray of mixed sizes cooks unevenly, and you will end up with burnt edges and raw middles. Two centimetres is about right.

The apples go in later than the roots. Added at the start they collapse into mush; added for the final fifteen minutes they keep their shape and turn soft and jammy at the edges. Bramley apples will break down more than eating apples, which is lovely if you want a sauce-like finish, but they will not hold their shape.

Building the glaze

Whisk together in a small bowl or jug:

• 3 tbsp maple syrup — the real thing, not maple-flavoured syrup
• 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 1 tbsp olive oil, or a little rendered fat from the tin
• 1 tsp cider vinegar, or a good squeeze of lemon
• Leaves from 4 to 5 thyme sprigs, stripped and roughly chopped
• Plenty of black pepper and a modest pinch of salt

The vinegar matters more than it looks. Maple syrup is sweet and the roots are sweet, so a little acid keeps the whole tray from tipping into cloying. If you have a bottle of dry cider open, a tablespoon of that works too.

Method and timings

Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, Gas 6). Tip the onions, carrots, parsnips and potatoes into a large roasting tin — you want them in a single layer with a little room to spare, so use the biggest tin you own or two smaller ones. Toss with two tablespoons of oil, season well, and roast for 25 minutes.

Take the tin out, turn the vegetables with a spatula, and nestle the sausages in among them. Spoon over half the maple glaze. Return to the oven for 15 minutes.

Now add the apple wedges and the rest of the glaze, turning everything gently so it is all coated. Roast for a final 15 to 20 minutes, until the sausages are deep brown and cooked through and the edges of the roots are sticky and caramelised.

If things are browning too fast at any point, loosely tent the tin with foil. If the tray looks dry, add a splash of water or stock rather than more oil. And if the glaze has not caught properly at the end, give it three or four minutes under a hot grill, watching it closely — maple syrup goes from caramel to carbon in seconds.

Serving, swaps and leftovers

Serve straight from the tin with something to mop up the sticky juices. Buttery mash, a hunk of sourdough, or simply a handful of mustardy greens wilted in a pan. A spoonful of crème fraîche or a sharp apple chutney on the side cuts through the sweetness nicely.

The recipe is forgiving, so treat it as a template. Swap in celeriac, swede, wedges of fennel or a couple of halved shallots. Streaky bacon or chunks of halloumi in place of some of the sausages works well. A pinch of chilli flakes in the glaze adds a welcome warmth, and a scattering of chopped parsley at the end freshens the whole thing up.

Leftovers keep for three days in the fridge. Reheat them in a hot oven for ten minutes rather than the microwave, or strip the meat from any spare sausages and fold everything through a bowl of warm pearl barley or lentils for a very good next-day lunch.