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We were lucky enough to try HECK’s delicious new chicken sausages and burgers. Leaner and lighter than your average pork sausage, they’re going down a storm with slimming and fitness groups, paleo followers and anyone generally wanting to eat better and get fitter.
Launched in 2013, HECK is the venture of one Yorkshire farming family and their school friends. They’ve been reinventing the humble sausage ever since. You can pick up low-fat and gluten-free products in both pork and chicken.
HECK is famously known for their popular ‘squasages’ – square sausages that are perfect for sausage butties. You don’t need to worry about these rolling out of your sandwich – and the recipe for these has recently been tweaked for the better as well. They’re simply bangin’.
If you need some inspiration, HECK even has the following recipe for making the perfect sausage butty:
The Squarely Smashing Sandwich
This recipe uses HECK’s Fair and Square sausages in crusty bread with sweet caramelised onions and mustard.
The recipe serves two for a satisfying supper.
Ingredients
2 Heck Fair & Square sausages
A glug of olive oil
4 slices of bread
1 large onion
1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon of Dijon or English mustard
1 teaspoon of clear honey
Method
1. Heat a glug of olive oil in a heavy frying pan, then slowly cook the sausage squares for about 15 minutes. Take them out, add the onions to the same pan and cook until caramelised.
2. Stir the balsamic, mustard and honey into the onions and pop the sausages back in the pan to warm up. Pile into lightly toasted sliced bread and serve with a dollop of sauce. We highly recommend brown.
You can also switch your British traditional meal for an American/German one. For a hot dog recipe, try this:
Big, Bold Bratwurst
This juicy hot dog recipe uses the HECK 97% pork sausages. This makes them both lean and mean.
This dish includes fresh sauerkraut and a crispy potato rosti.
The recipe serves two, or you can double the quantities for a meal with friends.
For extra kudos, serve with a strong German beer.
Ingredients
2 Heck 97% sausages
Rosti
1kg Charlotte, Vivaldi or Desiree potatoes, peeled and coarsely grated
1 onion, finely chopped
1 crushed clove of garlic
Salt and black pepper
A glug of olive oil
Sauerkraut
A tablespoon of olive oil
1 thinly sliced onion
1 medium green cabbage, shredded
1 1/4 cup of cider vinegar
1/2 cup of apple cider
1/2 cup of water, or less for an extra tangy blend
1 tablespoon of salt
Method
1. The Rosti – Dry the grated potato with a clean tea towel to remove the moisture. Mix with the onion, garlic and herbs then season with plenty of salt and pepper. Heat a glug of olive oil in a heavy frying pan. Add a handful of your grated potato mixture then flatten the surface with a fish slice. Cook for ten minutes on each side until it’s golden brown all over. Keep the heat low so the rosti cooks evenly inside too.
2. The Sauerkraut – Heat your oil in a pan then add the onion. Stir constantly until it softens and turns translucent.
3. Add your cabbage, cider, vinegar, water, salt and caraway seeds then bring to the boil.
4. Cover, reduce heat then simmer for 30-45 minutes until the cabbage is tender. Add a little water if it the cabbage gets too dry.
5. Meanwhile, grill your sausages until they’re golden brown then serve everything together – a delicious combination of juicy, crisp and satisfying flavours.
The HECK website has a range of tasty recipes to try besides these, but we thought we’d share the most iconic. You can also try some of your own, or give some of our ideas a whirl.
No-Bun Chicken Burgers
The chicken burgers are especially delightful. We served ours up Atkins-style, with an egg and some cheddar cheese sandwiched between two low-calorie patties (using low-cal spray to fry the egg and reduced fat cheese, this came to about 400 calories). Served on top of a bed of spinach with some red onions, this was absolutely delicious.
Sex up Bangers and Mash
The sausages went great with a sexed up bangers and mash recipe. Using sweet potato for the mash (and a dollop of reduced fat salted butter), we packed this dish with plenty of veg: roasting red onions and peppers with the sausages.
A great idea is to roast the sausages and vegetables together and then, in the last five minutes of cooking, add boiling water and gravy granules to the oven dish. Add in some chicken stock (a stock pot is great) for some extra flavour (as required), along with a hint of seasoning, to give this a bit of extra flavour. Stir well, and this makes for a tasty gravy – and you can always turn the heat down low and leave for a few minutes longer if the gravy hasn’t thickened enough.
You can find out more about HECK at heckfood.co.uk.
