Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Curried Sausages
Browned sausages simmered in a mild curry-and-coconut gravy over rice, a Rarotongan family lunch.
Cook Islands · easy · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 25 min
~1003 cal · 26g protein · 72g carbs · 69g fat · 3g fiber · 6g sugars · 34g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Curried sausages are an everyday plate across the Cook Islands, a colonial-era dish adopted wholeheartedly and then improved with the one thing the islands have in abundance: . It is the kind of meal an aunty makes on a Wednesday, cheap and filling and gone in minutes.
The method is homely and forgiving. Sausages are browned, then sliced and returned to a mild curry gravy thickened with a little flour and enriched with coconut, sweetened with peas or a grated carrot. Nothing about it is fancy, and that is precisely the point.
Ladled over white rice, it is a fixture of family tables from Rarotonga out to the outer islands, that some of the most loved island food is not ancient at all, but borrowed, tweaked, and made entirely local.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
8 beef sausages
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup
1 cup vegetable or water
1 cup frozen peas
2 tbsp oil
4 cups cooked rice, to serve
Instructions
1
Brown the sausages all over in the oil, then remove and cut into thick chunks.
2
Soften the onion and garlic in the same pan, then stir in the curry powder and flour and cook 1 minute.
✎ Chef’s note
Cooking the curry powder and flour in the fat for a minute builds the gravy and takes the raw, dusty edge off the spice.
3
Whisk in the coconut cream and stock a little at a time to a smooth gravy.
4
Return the sausages, add the peas, and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes.
5
Serve over hot rice.
Rarotongan family cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Rarotonga. Rarotonga is the main Cook Island, where ika mata cures raw reef fish in citrus before drowning it in fresh coconut cream. Taro, breadfruit, and pork cooked in the umu earth oven fill the Sunday table after church.
🗺️
Cook Islands. Cook Islands cuisine is Polynesian, raw fish marinated in coconut cream (ika mata), taro, and the earth-oven umukai feast. The lagoon and the coconut palm define an island table of fish and root crops.
🌍
Oceania. The staple crops here were carried on purpose. Lapita voyagers moving east from roughly three thousand years ago brought taro, yam, banana, breadfruit and coconut with them along with pigs and chickens, because most of the islands they settled had almost nothing edible growing on them. The earth oven travelled too, as umu, imu, hangi, lovo, mumu, motu and um.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Cook Islands
Ika MataRaw fish cured in lime and bathed in fresh coconut cream with cucumber, tomato, and spring onion.
Cook Islands PokeCooked ripe banana bound with arrowroot and baked until translucent, drowned in thick coconut cream, eaten at breakfast, at teatime, or alongside the main meal.
Pawpaw PokeThe orange poke of Rarotonga: ripe pawpaw thickened with arrowroot, baked into a soft pudding and eaten on its own under sweet coconut cream.
Browse all Cook Islands recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Cook Islands meal
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Pawpaw PokeDessert
Eke Takare (Curried Octopus in Coconut Cream)Dinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Curried Sausages?
Browned sausages simmered in a mild curry-and-coconut gravy over rice, a Rarotongan family lunch.
Where does Curried Sausages come from?
Curried Sausages is a Cook Islands dish from Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
Can Curried Sausages be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Curried Sausages recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Curried Sausages safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Curried Sausages take to make?
About 35 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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