Turkey Sausage with Roasted Vegetables
Slow cooking is the technique that makes this dish so good. Roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, fennel, onion, and peppers create an aromatic flavor base that is sweet and hearty, comforting, and develop umami flavors as they roast. The hot sausage really brings it home; you can make this with whatever kind of sausage you'd like, but we chose smoked turkey for its lighter texture. Use whatever kind of root vegetables you'd like. If you're not a fan of sweet potatoes then swap them out for russets or Yukon Golds, and add ingredients like rutabaga or turnips if you have them on hand.
This is the kind of dish that can be served at a catering event, lunch buffet, or anywhere you need a single-tray dish that brings proteins and sides together. It is easy to measure and simple to scale up to make in large batches.
- 2 pounds turkey smoked sausage
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 4 large, peeled carrots
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 large onion
- 1 fennel bulb
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Roasted Garlic Flakes
- 1 teaspoon freshly Cracked Black Pepper
- 1 1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- Preheat oven to 450° F.
- Cut turkey sausage into 8 equal pieces.
- Peel and coarsely cut sweet potatoes, carrots, bell pepper, onion and fennel into large chunks or cubes.
- In a medium sized bowl whisk together olive oil, Roasted Garlic Flakes, Cracked Black Pepper, Italian Seasoning and chicken broth.
- Place all the vegetables into a large casserole dish and drizzle the liquid on them and mix to coat all the vegetables.
- Cover the vegetables with foil and bake for 45 minutes or until fork tender.
- In a skillet on medium high heat, brown the turkey sausage pieces.
- Remove the vegetables from the oven, remove the foil and nest the turkey sausage pieces into the baked vegetables.
- Drizzle the dish with the balsamic vinegar.
- Return to oven, uncovered, and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes until the entire dish is nice and brown. After the first 15 minutes or so you can baste the sausage and vegetables with the liquid in the bottom of the casserole dish.
- Serve hot.
