fresh sausage, kale & roasted root vegetable medley.
/coming back after a lonnng recipe hiatus with a meal that seems sooo snoozy, but nourishing and scrumptious, actually.
boring new mom alert!
jumping from the last recipe that i posted well over a year ago, frozen almond joy, to roasted fall root vegetables….says a lot about how my brain has changed after becoming a mom this spring. i’m just trying to slowly dip my toes back into all the things i used to do…
i love our sweet little bebe to pieces, but my my how life has changed!
anyway, hopefully more fun recipes to come now that i’ve somewhat figured out how to exist with a baby in tow!
as the fall quickly turns into winter in the northwest (it snowed this week!!), these warm colorful root veggies really warmed our souls after we threw this all together with produce from a local farm stand.
plus, we added local fresh sausages and two kinds of cheeeeeeese.
this meal was super hearty. you could make it as a side dish, or just eat a larger portion as your actual meal, which we did and were totally satisfied.
a recipe like this is quite easy to throw together, just some chopping required, and that’s pretty much it!
i chopped up some of the green carrot tops to toss into the mix - it seems insane to throw out all the green carrot tops when they are perfectly edible. they’re like a mild parsley.
just a note that the sausages i used were uncooked when i added them to the sheet pan. if you want to use pre-cooked sausage, get the veggies roasting first and add the cooked sausage to the mix later on.
something magical happens when onion & garlic infuse into these root veggies along with herby salt or other herbs of your choosing. plus the addition of huge parmigiano reggiano shards, melted into little whisps all over the veggies. then topped with crumbled feta! mmm mmm, heartwarming. i LOVED the addition of the fresno pepper the first time i made this. it was like a sweet spicy heat that was very welcome amongst the grounded, earthy fall root veg.
i set aside a full container of chopped onion, beet and carrot when i first made this because chopping all these vegetables at once yielded a LOT. i would just recommend chopping and adding in the potatoes right before you’re going to roast them, so they don’t get oxidized and gross n’ brown.
this is totally customizable with what herbs, spices, cheeses or toppings that you’ve got on hand! fresh rosemary and/or thyme would be great tossed throughout, but i used an herby salt that really kicked up the overall flavors.
& how gorgeous are red beets!?! no lack of coloUr or flavor in this simple fall & winter sheet pan meal!
Fresh Sausage, Kale & Roasted Root Vegetable Medley
Serves 2-4
Total Time: 45 minutes // Baking Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
2-3 fresh hot pork link sausages, sliced or removed from casings and crumbled
1 large red beet, chopped into small cubes
3-4 large carrots, chopped into small cubes
1 cup of chopped carrot tops
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound small red and/or yellow gold potatoes, chopped into small cubes
1 bunch lacinato kale, chopped
1 medium red fresno pepper, sliced into thin rings
shaved parmigiano reggiano cheese
kosher salt or herb salt of choice
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
feta cheese crumbles or goat cheese (chevre)
pistachios, pepitas or walnuts, chopped (optional)
Instructions -
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Chop the kale and green carrot tops, setting aside for later. Chop all the root vegetables, aromatics and raw sausage as instructed, placing on the baking sheet as you go.
Drizzle everything on the baking sheet with olive oil and a few hefty pinches of kosher salt or an herbed salt. Toss well with tongs until all components are lightly coated in oil, evenly distributed and spread out into one layer.
Roast for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and toss everything well, testing a potato to see if its tender. Top with the chopped kale and carrot tops, tossing again to distribute. Shave large shards of fresh parmigiano reggiano cheese all over the veggies, and return to the oven for 5 more minutes.
Remove from the oven when the parmigiano shards are melty and the kale is tender but not too crisp. Serve up in bowls with plenty of black pepper and herbed salt to taste, crumbled feta or chevre, and chopped pistachios, pepitas or walnuts, if desired.
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