The colder Fall days are here and that to me, means comfort food. Fall comfort food? Apples and cinnamon of course!
I have a quick and easy recipe for you that I started doing for dinners but would make an excellent Sunday brunch or really anytime dish as well. And here is the kicker...even though it is apples and sausage? No meat! I started making a lot of meals without meat this year and have been playing around with different ways to use fruits, veggies and meat alternatives. One thing I should also mention here is that I also deal with a lot of food allergies so finding these alternatives has been an interesting quest, one source for me has been some of the Morningstar Farms line of vegetarian and vegan products. (I have not been paid for this endorsement, I just find them yummy and wanted to share.) Their breakfast “sausage” is what we’ll be using here for my version, but please feel free to tweak this using any meat or alternative you’d like. So for this this recipe I am using the “original” breakfast sausage and not the maple flavored one. It’s a personal preference but also since we are using syrup in this, I found using the maple flavored sausage to be a bit too overpowering. If you’d like to get any or see what the package looks like, please feel free to click on my Amazon link for this product: https://amzn.to/2QzLXD7 As for the butter used in this dish...I personally don’t like to use butter in many things, however, you really need something to give it a little body and to help keep this from sticking, so use whatever you’d like here. I will say oil makes this too heavy so again, just the lightest touch of butter is the way I go. If you are using a meat based sausage or bacon, etc, you can take the butter out and just use the naturals dust of the meat to give your dish some oomph. A lot of vegetarian based items can be on the dry side, so that’s another reason to use just a little something here. As with any of my recipes I put on here, I’m going to let you know what I do and you can take it from there. Let’s get to this, shall we?! Ingredients: Butter (regular or plant butter) 1 Apple (I use green) 1 or 2 Breakfast sausage patties (again I use Morningstar Farms Original Breakfast “Sausage”) Cinnamon Pancake syrup What to do: Since I use the frozen “sausage”, I put two patties on a paper plate and microwave them for half the time they are supposed to be done. I don’t want them fully cooked through, just warmed enough so I can shred or crumble them. I find with two, 45 seconds does the trick! While they are doing their thing, take just a little butter and throw some in a pan to heat up slowly on a low flame to help melt the butter. While the pan and butter are heating up, take your green apple and do a rough dice on it. Can be the whole thing or half, up to you and how hungry you are. I keep the skin on but again, that’s me. Just make sure no seeds get in your dish. Make sure to keep an eye on the butter in the pan so it doesn’t burn. Turn the heat up and then take your chopped up apple and throw it in the pan. Toss it around a little to try and get it all coated with the butter. Should have a light coating. Give it about a 30 seconds to a minute to get it heated up and then sprinkle on the cinnamon. Again, toss the apples around a bit to coat them with the cinnamon. Let them cook whilst you take the sausage patties and cut them up, shred them or crumble them into small pieces. Give the apples another stir and toss in the sausage, Stir it all around so the sausage gets some of the butter and cinnamon and juices from the apple. What I like to do here is cover the pan up for about a minute and let everything start to meld together while the apples get nice and soft. After a minute, take the cover off and stir. Keep it on the heat and keep stirring until the sausage and apples get to the consistency you’d like. Personally I like the apples soft and the sausage a little crisp or well done. (It helps to absorb the syrup a bit more) When you got it the way you like it, add your syrup. A little goes a long way, but if you are planning to put this over something like a waffle or pancakes? Add a touch extra. Stir everything around to coat and let it cook so that the syrup boils. Keep stirring so nothing burns and let it cook until the syrup thickens up and a lot of its water content has boiled off. Its ready when everything is nice and thick but can still be spooned into a bowl or over your favorite waffles or pancakes! Despite all the steps, it’s prety much done in 15-20 minutes. You can make a little or a lot and vary it up with bacon, ham or whatever you’d like. I do it as a dinner myself. Because of the sweetness of the syrup and apples, I end up not craving a dessert or sweet snack later and it takes care of the temptation. This dish is extremely flavorful and filling. If you do want to use this with waffles or something, you are not going to use a lot to top them with. But it does heat up very well and can be kept in the fridge in an airtight container and just grab a little here and there if you’d like. I have a tendency to eat it all after I’ve made it. It really is that good. :)
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