Vegan Biscuit Sausage Stuffing

Well this one has been on the backlog since Thanksveganing...

Recipe

Start the day before by making a batch of vegan biscuits - Pillsbury Southern Homestyle Buttermilk Biscuits are highly recommended (and vegan, despite the name). Leave them out overnight to get crusty.

• 10 oz vegan sausage - chorizo also highly recommended
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp each of fresh thyme, sage & rosemary, minced
• 2 c veggie broth
• butter, salt & pepper

Cut the biscuits into 1" cubes. Melt butter in an oven-safe skillet, and cook up the sausage and veggies. Season with the herbs, salt & pepper until the sausage and onions are looking (and smelling) good. Pour in the biscuits and broth, toss, and bake at 400 for 20-35 minutes.

Notes

This dish really stole the T-giving show. And I feel a little sheepish about it, since the biscuits and chorizo came out of a pack... but totally worth it :)

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Vegan Creamy Sausage Pasta

Credit to Anne for finding this one!

Recipe
8 oz pasta

6 oz spinach

14 oz vegan sausage - sliced or crumbled

2 garlic cloves

1/2 vegan cream cheese

1/4 c pesto (see below)

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/4 c veggie broth

1/4 vegan parmesan cheese

• Start cooking the pasta. 
• In the meantime, start cooking the sausage in a little oil over medium high. When it's close to done, add the sausage and wilt. Set aside.
• Add a little more oil to the pan and sizzle the garlic. Add the cream cheese and veggie broth, and stir until melted. Then add the pesto and nutritional yeast.
• Combine everything and serve!

Pesto

2 c basil leaves

3 tbsp pine nuts (or walnuts)

3 cloves garlic

2 tbsp lemon juice

3-4 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/4 tsp salt

2-3 tbsp olive oil

3-6+ tbsp water

Blend the dry ingredients into a paste, then add the olive oil a little at a time, then the water to get to the right consistency.

Notes

I was a little skeptical, since this favorite recipe of mine is pretty simple, good, and easy to veganize, while this takes extra steps for pesto and stuff. But I was happy to be proved wrong! The extra effort is well worth it whether for a casual night in or serious carb loading before a 25 (or 50) K...

"Sausage" (aka mushroom) "Breakfast" (aka anytime of day) Patties

Just did a Virtual Cooking Class with a chef who is on Instagram as @PlantBasedG.life and these are DELICIOUS. They SMELL just like sausage and get a delicious SEAR like a burger but its all mushrooms and plants :)

Ingredients

-3 cups white mushrooms

-1 large white onion, diced

-3 cloves garlic, diced

-1 cup brown rice

-4 oz black olives

-1/2 Jalapeno

-1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used Trader Joe's Gluten Free Rice Crumbs- use whatever! In the class he also told us you could also just make toast and use that)

-Avocado oil (2ish tablespoons but I honestly use less than every recipe says for oil)

-English Muffins (I used Ezekiel Gluten Free English Muffins. Highly recommend!!)

Spices

-Cayenne Pepper

-Oregano

-Cumin

-Dried Sage (I honestly just used regular sage and it totally was fine hahaha)

-Thyme

-Salt & Pepper

-Add any other spices you like :)

**NOTE: BLENDER NEEDED

To Serve

Tomato slices, lettuce, and raw onion slices

Steps:

1. Cook the rice, leave to cool

2. Blend the mushrooms till they kinda look like ground beef

3. Saute the onions in the avocado oil for a few mins (till translucent & starting to brown)

4. Add mushrooms to the onions and saute another few mins till the mushrooms are cooked. Add the garlic and ALL the spices (but NOT the jalapeno) and cook for another few mins.

5. Let everything cool (very important because you don't want to put warm stuff in the blender- it will get super hot in there)

6. Put the mushroom concoction, olives, and rice in the blender and blend. Add the bread crumbs & Jalapeno and blend a little more. It should start to look like ground beef.

7. Scoop everything into a bowl (this just makes it easier to form the patties and put on the pan

8. Add a tablespoon of avocado oil to a pan and set it to medium heat. When pan is hot, scoop out a patty sized chunk and put it on! It'll sear just like a burger its crazy. Flip over after 3-5 mins. Play around with timing obviously but cook for about 3-5 mins per side. 

While the patties are cooking, toast your English Muffins!

Serve with the raw tomato slices, raw onion slices, and lettuce. Eric liked his with Hot Sauce. 

ENJOY!! <3 Natalie

New Orleans Red Beans & Rice

Despite this tragedy:

...the Knicks actually pulled out a rare road victory in New Orleans!  If you look closely, the Pelicans' jersey sponsor is Zatarain's.  Coincidentally, I'd already decided to go behind their back and give this recipe a shot.

Recipe

1 lb kidney beans
1 lb andouille sausage, sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
~1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground sage
4 sprigs thyme
3 bay leaves
salt & pepper & oil

optional
hot sauce
cider vinegar
1 smoked ham hock
8 oz pickled pork shoulder
white rice

OK you have to start by soaking the beans in (a lot of) salted water, 8-16 hours, then drain and rinse.

Once you're ready to get started, heat a tbsp of oil (or lard) in a big dutch oven and brown your andouille.  Then add the vegetables (and a sprinkle of salt) and soften, then the garlic briefly, then the cayenne, sage and a bunch of black pepper also briefly.  Next in go the beans, cover them with water (6-8 cups), and add the thyme and bay leaves.  Boil, cover, and simmer 2 hours, give or take, until the beans are soft.  Remove the lid and continue to cook until it thickens.  Remove the inedibles (bay leaves, thyme stems), add hot sauce and cider vinegar, and serve over rice.

Notes

This one takes a long time!  (Denver elevation probably didn't help get those beans soft quickly.)  Ton of flavor between the sausage and spices!  And there's actually a good bit of vegetables in there with the "Holy Trinity" - but I added an avocado even though it's not technically cajun but it ended up fitting in nicely.  My main mistake seemed to be adding too much water so the gravy didn't seem too thick - next time I'd start more conservative and add more as needed.

Skillet Sausage Pasta

Stuck at home recovering from losing soccer finals / a foot injury; unclear which one hurt more :( but the second thing made it tricky to get to the store.  A little Google homework and turned up this recipe.

Recipe

1 lb sausage
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 c broth
8 oz pasta (~2 1/2 c)
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes
1/2 c half and half or cream
Monterey jack cheese
green onion, sliced
olive oil, salt & pepper, crushed red pepper

Start the sausage and onion in some olive oil in a skillet.  Once that's lightly browned, add in the garlic for a minute or so, then the broth, pasta, tomatoes, some crushed red pepper, and salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer until the pasta is cooked.  Once that's done, stir in the cream and simmer for a minute or two.  Remove from heat and springkle with grated cheese and green onion.

Notes

This one actually worked out with most of the ingredients already on hand, with some minor tweaks (water instead of broth, milk instead of cream, chopped up old cherry tomatoes instead of canned diced, gouda instead of jack).  All worked pretty well for an easy, more southwestern pasta!

Sausage & Balsamic Grapes

Grapes are part of at least one family favorite dinner recipe (is that Chicken Pesto up here somewhere).  So I thought this one from ATK was worth a try:

Recipe

sweet Italian sausage (~1 1/2 lbs, or really as much as you want) - actual whole sausages!

1 lb seedless red grapes, halved

1 onion, sliced thin

1/4 c water

1/4 c white wine (dry)

1 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp fresh mint, chopped

vegetable oil, salt & pepper

Heat a tbsp or so of oil in a skillet over medium, then brown the sausages on 2 sides.  Drain some oil/fat (optional!) and add the onion and grapes around the sausage, and add the water and cover.  Cook the sausages (about 10 minutes), turning halfway through.  Remove the sausages, and heat things up, adding some salt & pepper.  Brown the onions / soften the grapes (a few minutes), then add the white wine and oregano.  Scrape up brown bits while reducing by about half.  Stir in vinegar and serve over your sausage.

Notes

I messed up the first try at this by getting bulk sausage - luckily plenty of ways to use that up too (i.e. an improvised grape Korvgryta).  The official recommendation is to serve with salad or polenta, but some mashed potatoes worked very nicely - soaked up some of the sweetness.  Overall a kind of classier, sweeter version of the sausage & peppers...

Sausage and Cabbage

The title sums it up pretty well, actually...  An unsurprisingly British dish courtesy of The New York Times...

Recipe

1 large cabbage (about 4 lbs, green or Savoy), cored and shredded
2 lbs Italian sausage
butter, salt & pepper

Boil the cabbage in salted water for about 3 minutes; drain and run under cold water.  Butter a baking dish (they recommend 9x13x2) and layer a third of the cabbage, then half the sausage.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and dot with butter.  Repeat with another layer, then top with the rest of the cabbage (and more butter dots).  Cover the dish with parchment paper and tin foil and cook at 300 degrees for 2 hours.  If there's still a lot of liquid, uncover.  Cook another 30 minutes.

Notes

Easy enough!  The cabbage step got a little messy - that's a lot of ruffage to cut and boil (even at about half size)!  Could use a bigger baking dish too, but the old reliable one did the trick:

They recommend serving with crusty bread and mustard, but I found it goes really well over mashed potatoes!

Spanish-Style Lentils & Chorizo

Bacon AND chorizo?  And with enough veggies to plausibly be healthy?  Another worthwhile one crowdsourced from here...

Recipe

4 slices bacon, chopped
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
4 oz chorizo
1 c rice
1 c lentils
4 c water
1 c tomato sauce
cumin, paprika
oil, salt & pepper

Start with your bacon in some oil and crisp it up; you can take it out or not and add the onion, carrot, garlic, and spices, then green pepper, then the chorizo.  Once the meat is cooked through, add the rice, lentils, and water and simmer until soft.  Stir in the tomato sauce and let the flavors meld.

Notes

Don't know how necessary the bacon really was, but can't complain.  I used the end of my packages of lentils and rice - more like 3/4 c - and a whole pack of chorizo - 4x the recommended amount?!  So mine was much meatier than the original version.  Very tasty, and awesome left over!

Caldo Verde

It wasn't pretty, apparently - not even a shot on goal until extra time ?! - but Portugal beat Croatia to move on in Euro 2016.  My sympathies may have been more with the Croats, but it still felt like an appropriate occasion to try out a new Portuguese recipe from ATK:

Recipe

1/2 lb chorizo, cut into 1/2" pieces
1/2 onion, chopped fine
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4" pieces
2 c broth
2 c water
1/2 lb collard greens, chopped
1 tsp vinegar
olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt & pepper

Lightly brown the chorizo in some olive oil, then set aside.  Next, cook the onion, garlic, red pepper, salt & pepper for a few minutes, then add the potatoes, broth, and water.  Bring to a boil, then simmer until the potatoes are tender.

Blend about 1/2 c solids and 1/2 c broth.  In your pot, add the collard greens and simmer about 10 minutes; re0add the chorizo and give it another 10.

Add a couple tbsp olive oil to the blender and process until smooth.  Stir into the soup with vinegar, and serve!

Notes

This actually turned out pretty similar to an old favorite: stewed collards and chorizo.  In a large part, it was because of my lack of a blender - I just mashed the potatoes at about that point of the recipe.  I also used ground chorizo instead of hard sausage - wonder how much of a difference that might make...  Texture aside, caldo verde adds potatoes for a bit more heartiness, but doesn't help the broth quite as much.  It made a couple solid dinners, but writing this, it's pretty clear I need to try again closer to the authentic recipe...

Chorizo Pisto

Buenas noches!  Donde esta la biblioteca?  Tengo mucho hambre.  Quiero una cena espanola.  Hacemos pisto!  La idea viene del New York Times aqui.

Recipe (I feel like I must have known the Spanish word for "recipe" before, but not anymore so back to English...)

1/2 lb chorizo, removed from casing (optional)
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb zucchini or summer squash
1 14 oz can tomatoes
2-3 eggs
salt & pepper
olive oil

Heat some olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Start with the chorizo, breaking it up and getting it a bit brown.  Next add the onions until well tender (about 5 minutes),  then garlic (a minute or so), then zucchini/squash until starting to soften (another 5 minutes).  Add the tomatoes and juice, lower heat to medium low and cook about half an hour, stirring and mashing with a wooden spoon periodically.  Finally, make wells in the stew for the eggs, break one into each, sprinkle with salt & pepper, cover, and cook until the whites are set but yolk still runs (6-8 minutes).

Notes

This is kind of a simplified, meat-ified version of the NYT's recipe.  I was hungry though, and regret nothing!  The chorizo gives it so much flavor, and the rest of the stew is essentially all vegetables so hearty and healthy.

Korvgryta

Pronunciation unclear, korvgryta is a Swedish sausage casserole.  Like other Scandinavian dishes, it's straightforward meat-and-potatoes; it may not be as tempting to poor Jansson, but that's a matter for a future post.  Here you go:

Recipe

1 lb sausage meat
2 onions, sliced
2 apples, sliced
4-5 potatoes, cooked and sliced

Start by boiling your potatoes.  Remove the sausage meat from the casings and brown in a heavy skillet.  Remove sausage but leave drippings; cook the onion.  Once they're golden brown and transparent, add the apple slices and cook briefly.  Butter a casserole dish and layer the potatoes, sausage, and onion/apple.  Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

Notes

Everything cooks separately, but it's the half-hour or so baking in the casserole that lets the flavors meld together wonderfully.  I don't think you have to be too selective with your choice of sausage; our jalapeno-cheddar added a nice spicy and (obviously) salty element to the mix.  The original recipe said it made four servings; we one-and-a-halved everything, and it stuffed four people nicely with a little left over.

Not much green in the recipe, so it needs a side for a well-rounded meal:

Sausage & Mushroom Pasta Skillet

Well, it wasn't the most productive summer for the blog, between travel and other stuffs.  I did get excited about one dutch oven chicken recipe, but it was a bit of a letdown.  So July was a washout...  Getting back in the groove, this Serious Eats recipe looked pretty serious...

Recipe

1/2 lb Italian sausage (hot or mild (but go with hot)), removed from casings
1/2 lb pasta, rotini or similar ridged
1 lb mushrooms, chopped (they recommend mixed but Portabellos were great on their own)
1 c Panko bread crumbs
6 oz Parmesan cheese, grated
2 small shallots, minced (or just an onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 parsley leaves, chopped
2 tbsp chives, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 1/2 tbsp flour
2 c broth (they say chicken, I used veggie)
1 c heavy cream
salt & pepper

Combine the bread crumbs, 1/3 of the cheese, half the parsley & chives, 1/4 shallot, 1/4 garlic, and the olive oil, and mix together with some salt & pepper.

Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium high, and brown the sausage, breaking it up.  Set aside, leaving fat in the skillet.

Next you cook the mushrooms in the skillet until well browned.  Probably a little after that starts, put in your pasta.  OK back to the skillet.  Stir in the garlic and shallot for a minute, then stir in the soy sauce and lemon juice, then the flour.  Next, add the broth and simmer a couple minutes until it starts to thicken.  Stir in the cheese, parsley, chives, and sausage, and season with some salt and pepper.  Your pasta should be done and drained by now.  Add it too.

Top your skillet mixture with the bread crumbs.  Pop it in the oven about 10" under the broiler until golden brown, probably just a few minutes with some rotating.  Remove and eat.

Notes

That's a lot of ingredients...  I about halved everything, and left out some of the green herbs.
If that missed some flavors, I made up for it with a lot of cheese and generous (by my standards) salting and peppering.  It's a delicious, super-rich pasta.  In addition to the cheese, you've also got the butter/olive oil/other fats going - and cooked into those mushrooms.  Really good.  It's a bit extravagant for a pasta dish, but worth it when the occasion arises.  It proved to be championship-caliber carb loading for me :)

Penne a la Vodka

Apparently this is a manly, alcoholic pasta dish:

Recipe

1 lb penne
1 lb Italian sausage
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 lb mushrooms, chopped
1 can (16 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 c heavy cream
2 tbsp vodka
4 c loosely packed spinach, chopped
Parmesan cheese
4 tbsp butter
salt & pepper

Brown the sausage in a cast-iron skillet, then set aside to drain on some paper towels.

Probably about now, start boiling water for your pasta.

Melt the butter in your skillet, and saute the onions until soft.  Then add the mushrooms, garlic, and red pepper.  Once that's all soft, add the tomatoes, cream, vodka, and sausage.  Simmer 10 minutes.

Toss with the pasta and spinach, and top with cheese and serve.

Notes

I'll have to take their word for it that the vodka is a crucial element of the recipe - it's good but doesn't really have a drunk taste.  My main concern was really there being enough sauce to cover the pasta.  It ended up more minimal than the basic Italian/pizza joint staple.  It's a lot of ingredients to prep, but it does rotate them through one skillet - you end up needing a handful of bowls ready.  All in all a little gimmicky, but good for a couple hearty pasta meals.

There's a little bit of a comparison to the pumpkin & sausage pasta from earlier.  This one today is probably a little simpler - fewer ingredients - but the vodka maybe doesn't stand out the way pumpkin does...

Pumpkin & Sausage Pasta

I got a (premature) jump on the fall with this recipe, earmarked a while ago in the old Rachael Ray cookbook (which actually only required me to buy the sausage and Parm):

Recipe

1 lb pasta (e.g., penne, rigatoni, rotini)
1 lb Italian sausage (bulk, or removed from casing)
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
4-6 sage leaves, slivered
1 cup dry white wine
1 can (14 oz.) chicken broth
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup heavy cream
sprinkle of cinnamon & nutmeg/allspice
Parmesan cheese
olive oil, salt, pepper

Heat some olive oil in a deep pot or skillet over medium and brown the sausage.  Remove, add a little more oil, and saute the onion and garlic.  Add the wine, bay leaf, and sage; reduce the wine for a few minutes.  Next in goes the broth and pumpkin, stir together, and bring to a bubble.  Return the sausage, reduce heat, and add cream.  Season with a sprinkle of cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and pepper and simmer five minutes.

Meanwhile, somewhere in there, start cooking the pasta.  Once everything's done, pour the sauce over the pasta and let mingle for a few minutes over low heat.  Serve with Parmesan.

Notes

First of all, Rachael recommends sweet sausage, but I got spicy because I like to live on the edge.  It was strong but delicious.  Also, I reverse-substituted allspice for cinnamon and nutmeg.

I was a little skeptical looking at everything, but it turned out delicious.  The sauce didn't really thicken, but it still worked perfectly in a nice deep bowl of pasta.  With a generous sprinkle of cheese, it's a bowl of gooey delight:

Ale-Braised Duck Sausage

Sticking with the colonial cookbook, although this one had a distinctive French theme to it...

Recipe

1 lb duck sausage
1 large onion, sliced thin
1 medium shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbsp butter
2 cups dark ale
1 tsp mustard
1/2 cup demi-glace

Cut shallow diagonal slices into the sausage and bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes (if pre-cooked).  Meanwhile, cook the onion, shallot and garlic in a skillet with the butter, high heat for a few minutes.  Then add the sausage, then the ale to deglaze, scraping up bits from the pan bottom.  Cook at medium about 10 minutes, until the ale reduces to just coat the pan.  Remove the sausage and keep warm.  Add the demi-glace and mustard and cook about 5 minutes until reduced by half.  Serve over the sausage and whatever other elements you like.

Outcome

To be honest, this did not look promising at first.  I had trouble finding duck sausage, and when I did it was raw, not pre-cooked.  And I have no real idea what demi-glace is - I didn't copy that page of the recipe.  Then the big onion I had on hand was... really gross.  But I winged it - baked the sausage a while longer, used a small (backup) onion, and said forget that French demi-glace nonsense.  I also had some extra broccoli so I tossed that in there.

After all that, I was definitely pleased with how it turned out.  The end result was really rich and flavorful.  The sausage I used had, like, duck, duck liver, other animals, lots of good stuff.  Without the totally-avoidable complications, it's actually a pretty simple meal - all I had to buy was the sausage and shallot (although the beer I had on hand was more of the pale ale variety).  Served over cous cous.  Delicious and looking forward to leftovers!

Crockpot Jambalaya

A few years back, my go-to dish was old Zatarain's jambalaya out of a box.  So when I happened across this (paleo) jambalaya recipe, I was pretty excited to give it a try from scratch:

Recipe

4 c chicken stock
rice (optional)

Meat
1/2 lb chicken, diced
1 package andouille sausage, sliced
1/2 lb raw shrimp, deveined

Greens
4 peppers (mix of colors), chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 large can diced tomatoes
2 c okra (optional)
2 jalapenos, diced (optional)

Seasoning
2 cloves garlic, diced
2 bay leaves
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
hot sauce (optional)

Start with the stock, chicken, greens, and seasonings all in the crockpot to cook on low for 6 hours.  With 30 minutes to go, put in the andouille, then with 20 minutes, the shrimp.  You can add the rice for 20 minutes too, or cook separately.  Done.

Notes

So the chicken and shrimp amounts are pretty approximate - anything up to or a little over a pound won't overwhelm.  As simple as the instructions are, the toughest part is all the chopping.  The peppers, onion, garlic, etc. are pretty straightforward, but the okra was surprisingly gooey.  And it was my first experience with prepping raw shrimp.  The little legs, shells, veins...  gross.  And honestly, the andouille is really the star of the dish.  It's soupier than other jambalaya's I've had, but more colorful.  And great!  Next time just need to find more eaters.

Cider Braised Brats

This is one of my favorites. It's simple enough, with just a handful of ingredients, and you can enjoy one of your extra bottles of cider while you cook and/or eat.  You might not think that sausage could absorb much flavor from the cider, but that just isn't the case at all.

The Recipe

bratwurst
1 onion, sliced
1 bell pepper, sliced
1 bottle hard cider

Melt a tbsp or two of butter over medium low, and put on your peppers and onions.  Once they're pretty well cooked, add the cider and brats, cover loosely and simmer until the sausage is cooked through.  Then char the brats a little on a grill pan, while turning up the heat to reduce the cider and finish off the veggies.

Thoughts

My only problem with the recipe is that it's a bit ambiguous with the peppers and onions.  What does it mean to "sweat" them out?  I basically soften them pretty good, and then you have to make sure to nuke them pretty well at the end.  And if you don't have a grill pan, sear the brats a bit in another pan.  And did I mention, enjoy another cider while you eat?

Stewed Collard Greens & Chorizo

I don't have much to add to this recipe, but it's just too good not to share here.  You get your meat and veggies in one very savory pot/bowl.  Just follow the recipe!

The Recipe

1 bunch collard greens, leaves removed from stems and chopped into bite-size pieces
1 lb fresh chorizo, casing removed
1 quart stock
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp hot sauce

Brown the chorizo in a bit of oil in a soup pot.  Then add stock, vinegar, soy sauce and hot sauce, put in the collard greens, cover loosely and stew for about 20 minutes, until the greens are soft and wilted.

Notes

My only notes: The biggest thing is to use fresh chorizo, not the smoked and packaged type.  I use chipotle Tabasco sauce, and a substitution for vegetable stock is pretty tasty too even though it's still not vegetarian-friendly...

And turns out I do have a picture (with the wrong chorizo, though):