Scottish Granary Rolls and Blackheart Sausages, Peppers and Onion

Black pudding Lorne sausages on rolls with fried peppers and onion

A roll and sausage is usually considered a fairly unhealthy item, almost like the Scottish equivalent of a burger. If you think about it, though, and break down a roll and sausage in to component parts, it needn't be quite as unhealthy as you first think. For example, if you buy low quality sausages and white rolls packed full of salt and sugar, spread the rolls thickly with salted butter, fry the sausages in lard and squeeze on a great glug of tomato ketchup before closing the rolls over, you are going to have a pretty unhealthy production. Sure, I agree it will taste great - but the saturated fat, salt and sugar in your light breakfast/lunch is probably more than you should consume in the course of several days!

So how can we make a roll and sausage healthier but still enjoy it every bit as much? Don't believe it's possible? Why not give this idea a try?

Blackheart Lorne sausages see black pudding stuffed through the centre of the sausage meat

These are blackheart sausages, butcher made from quality meat. The only difference from normal Lorne sausages is that they have a thick vein of black pudding running through the centre. They're known by a number of different names and if you haven't tried them before, I promise you, they're absolutely delicious - provided, of course, you like black pudding.

Frying Blackheart Lorne sausages in vegetable oil

I started off by adding a little bit of vegetable oil to a non-stick frying pan and frying the sausages over a medium heat for about four to five minutes each side until done.

Frying onion and bell peppers with Tabasco sauce

When the sausages were turned on to their second side, I put some oil in to a second pan and brought it up to a fairly high heat. I sliced half a small white onion and added it to the pan with a small handful of mixed, sliced bell peppers. You can buy packs of these mixed bell pepper slices in many supermarkets and they're fairly inexpensive. I then added a few drops of Tabasco sauce (be careful!) and plenty of black pepper. You don't need salt. I essentially stir fried for just a couple of minutes.

Scottish granary rolls

I remember when I was a child, my Mum trying to get me to eat brown bread. God, I hated it! I have never personally eaten cardboard but that is exactly what I imagined I was eating when I took a bite of 1970's brown bread. Fortunately, there is now a far greater variety of brown breads and rolls readily available to all of us and these super fresh, soft granary rolls were absolutely deilicious as well as of course being nutritious.

Blackheart sausages added to granary rolls

I didn't butter the rolls, merely sliced them in half before laying the sausages on the bottom half. I then used cooking tongs to divide the onion/pepper combination between the two rolls and closed them over to eat.

Spicy peppers and onions are added to rolls and blackheart sausages