Heather says:
Eating locally and seasonally is a popular trend, with good reason.
Choosing foods grown locally and in season reduces the amount of energy that is needed to bring the food from the farm to your table. In colder climates, it isn’t always convenient or practical as late winter can mean nothing is actually “in season”. In that case, your Winter menu options generally consist of a lot of root vegetables that store well.
Here in the South, cruciferous vegetables are the late winter hotness, and I won’t lie, I get a little excited when cabbage drops to $0.39 a pound. When my teenagers were little, they insisted that they hated cabbage. So one night, I was a little punchy (I was outnumbered, and it had been a very long day.) I told them that we weren’t eating cabbage, that it was actually a French dish, cah-bahge. They fell for it, hook line and sinker. They thought they were quite proper and to this day, if anyone dares call it cabbage, they often get teased, “Don’t you mean cah-bahge?” in the snootiest of accents.
All of the seasoning needed for this recipe is provided by the sausage and the aromatic vegetables. You can add a little salt and pepper if you like, but taste it first.
As written, this meal takes two skillets unless you have an 18″ or 20″ skillet. Just put half in each pan. With the technique used in this recipe, the shape of the pan doesn’t matter much and you can use a large dutch oven or pot if that’s what you have on hand.
If you are cooking for one or two people, halve the amounts (use two carrots) and cook it in a single pan. You don’t have to halve the sausage, but if you’re trying to keep to follow the Michael Pollan adage, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” you’ll want to.
Tip:
Smoked sausage will keep in the fridge for quite a while in its original packaging and makes a great addition to eggs in the morning. And if you have any leftovers this dish makes a great base for a scramble, just heat it in your skillet, beat a couple of eggs, and stir them in.
Simple Sausage Skillet
My family likes this meal as is, but sometimes I will serve it over lightly buttered egg noodles for the younger kids or for the teenager who is swimming and burning calories faster than they can shovel them in.
Notes
If any of your ingredients become stuck to the bottom of your skillet, use your chicken stock. Add a splash to your pan and use your wooden spoon to scrape up the bits. This will add more flavor to your final dish unless you got really distracted and let those stuck bits burn, but that’s a different situation.
This skillet is low-carb as written but is very flexible. You can add cubed sweet potatoes, turnips, or even apples for different flavor profiles if you want. If you choose to take this route. Please make sure the cubes are about a half-inch or so and add them before adding the cabbage to give them time to cook/soften fully.
Ingredients
- 1 lb smoked sausage
- 1 sweet onion, sliced
- 2 – 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 small heads of cabbage, roughly chopped
- 3 – 4 large handfuls of kale optional
- 1/2 cup chicken broth/stock (see Notes)
Instructions
- Place the skillet or large Dutch oven over medium-low heat (3 – 4) on an electric stove.
- Slice the sausage into coins and add to the pan.
- While the sausage cooks prepare all of the other vegetables, stirring occasionally when the sausage reaches your desired level of doneness (I prefer the sausage fairly brown.)
- Add the onions and stir occasionally until they begin to soften. If you aren’t a huge garlic fan, add it now or hold off a bit if you are.
- Add the carrots, stir occasionally until they start to soften.
- Add the garlic, now if you didn’t earlier.
- Add the cabbage, stir, and cover and cook until tender.
- Add the kale, stir, and cook until it turns bright green. You want the kale to retain its texture to contrast with the softer, cooked cabbage.
Heather, I was wondering what cod be used in place of the kale? I have four picky men who won’t touch it!
You could go a couple of ways:
1. Just omit it and use a little more cabbage
2. If you don’t mind sweet / savory combos, slice up a granny smith apple or two. Just make sure you’re using a smoked sausage not something like Italian, that could be an interesting flavor pairing.
Sounds so yummy to me, but picky eaters in my house may not go for sausage so I was wondering: If I were to substitute some diced chicken, what seasoning would you go with?
This dish relies on the sausage for flavoring. If I were to substitute chicken, I’d marinate the chicken in Italian dressing or vinaigrette.
Italian seasoning and garlic would be my preferred route.
Alternately you could go with garlic and thyme, maybe a little oregano.
Thanks so much for the quick reply! Can’t wait to try it.
Leftovers would probably be good in a wrap for lunch, too. I often serve something like your sausage and peppers and onions (https://www.home-ec101.com/back-to-basics-sausage-peppers-and-onions/) and put them in wraps.
That sounds really good, thank you for the idea. I find both meals really good with cheese grits, but the opinion on that suggestion will vary by region. 🙂