I’ve been obsessed with this super simple Sausage and Vegetable Skillet lately, making it at least once per week. There’s no chopping, it only takes a few ingredients, it’s super filling, packed with color and flavor, and it makes the perfect meal prep! Plus, it’s quite flexible and can take a lot of different random substitutions and add-ins!
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What’s in the Sausage and Vegetable Skillet?
This meal is a result of me scavenging my fridge and freezer for whatever I had left and tossing it all into a skillet. And wouldn’t you know, it tasted great! The skillet basically includes some sort of seasoned meat (in this case sausage), frozen cauliflower, frozen peppers and onions, frozen kale, and your favorite seasoning.
What Kind of Meat to Use
It’s important to use some sort of pre-seasoned meat for this skillet for maximum flavor. In the photos here, I’ve used Italian sausage, but you could also use chorizo, or I’ve even used some leftover Chili Rubbed Pulled Pork. If you do plan to try this with a plain ground meat (turkey, chicken, pork, beef) you’ll want to add seasoning to the meat as it cooks as well as seasoning the skillet at the end.
What Else Can I Add?
You can experiment with adding other frozen vegetables, like broccoli, corn, peas, green beans, etc. Or try adding in some beans or roasted potatoes to bulk it up a bit. Another way to bulk this up is to increase the vegetables (you might want to increase the seasoning if you do so).
Extra toppings are always fun, like a fried egg, avocado, sour cream, cheese, salsa, or any other sauce or dressing that you like. But me? I keep it simple and just eat it as-is!
How to Serve Sausage and Vegetables
I’ve been eating this dish just the way it is straight out of the skillet, but if you want to bulk it up even more you can serve it over rice or mashed potatoes. A little Garlic Bread would also be awesome with this meal!
Sausage and Vegetable Skillet
Servings 4 about 1.25 cups eachIngredients
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
- 1 lb. Italian sausage ($5.99)
- 1/2 lb. frozen cauliflower florets ($1.00)
- 1/2 lb. frozen peppers and onions ($1.00)
- 1/4 lb. frozen kale ($0.83)
- ½ tsp seasoning salt or seasoning blend (or to taste) ($0.05)
Instructions
- Add the cooking oil and sausage to a skillet. Cook the sausage over medium heat until brown and crispy.
- Add the cauliflower, peppers and onions, and kale to the skillet with the sausage. Continue to stir and cook until the vegetables are heated through.
- Add a liberal amount (or to taste) of your favorite seasoning salt or seasoning blend and stir to combine. Serve hot.
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Nutrition
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How to Make Sausage and Vegetable Skillet – Step by Step Photos
Add a tablespoon of cooking oil to a skillet and add the Italian sausage (or whatever seasoned meat you prefer). Cook the sausage until it is brown and crispy.
Add ½ lb. frozen cauliflower florets, ½ lb. frozen bell peppers and onions, and ¼ lb. frozen kale to the skillet. You don’t have to measure these exactly, just estimate based on the weight of the bag (if it’s a 12 oz. bag, estimate ⅔ of the bag to get ½ lb.).
Continue to stir and cook over medium heat until the vegetables are heated through. Don’t overcook the vegetables.
Then just add a liberal amount of your favorite seasoning blend. I’m using Tony Chachere’s here, but you can use just about any seasoning blend. I tend to use seasoning blends that already contain salt, but if yours doesn’t, just keep in mind that you’ll want to add some salt to help make the flavors in the skillet pop.
And that’s it! The skillet is done! The fat and seasoning from the sausage adds a ton of flavor and richness to the entire skillet, and then the added seasoning at the end adds a final layer of flavor. It’s simple, but SO GOOD.
And now my lunches for the next few days are done! :)
Came home exhausted from work and had to make dinner for my family. Saw this recipe and whipped it up with Italian sausage with casing removed, diced onion, diced green pepper, frozen green beans and frozen peas- served over mashed potatoes.
It was quick and easy. Thanks!
If I want to use fresh veggies, how much should I buy? (Sorry if this is a stupid question, but like, how many peppers and onions? How many heads of cauliflower? How much kale?)
Any tips on how to reduce the amount of water in the pan without over cooking the vegetables? Love how this recipe tastes and how quick it is to make!
That extra water is coming from the frozen vegetables, so you could try thawing them separately and pouring off some extra water. Also, using a higher heat will make the water evaporate faster without having to cook them for as long. Another way to make the water reduce faster is to use a wider skillet (with a bigger surface area) so all the ingredients aren’t as crowded in the pan and the extra liquid will evaporate faster. ~ Marion :)
This didn’t turn out great for me and I’m not sure if I missed a step or something. Getting the sausage brown and crispy made it less tender than I’d have liked. The frozen cauliflower florets long enough to cook that the bell peppers were mush by the time everything was done. And there’s nothing about draining the fat, so the whole dish turned out *really* moist and oily.
Good concept, but the timing/execution didn’t work as great on my end.
Whenever a recipe says to add frozen vegetables to it, I definitely heat them in the microwave the first! It works out much better for me. I have experienced the same thing in other recipes.
I made this with Montreal steak seasoning and served it over rice and it was delicious! Great mix of veggie flavors with the sausage!
What brand of chicken sausage did you use in this recipe. Thank you in advance.
It is Kroger brand Italian Sausage. XOXO -Monti
Very tasty (how can you go wrong with Italian sausage, right) and oh so easy! The easiness alone puts it in my rotation.
So easy yet so good. I am on a time crunch finishing my thesis so I’m relying on these quick and easy recipes to keep me sustained as I keep on writing. More of these please!
I don’t like frozen cauliflower much, so I swapped that with frozen diced potatoes, huge hit with my 4 kids!
I used fresh cauliflower and pre chopped fresh kale, and it was great! Had would’ve put the kale in a little earlier to wilt it down faster when I make i again. For seasoning, I used a liberal amount of cumin, red pepper flakes, and oregano, and a litle bitt of salt and pepper. So good! Served it with some crispy potatoes!
What a great way to get everything out of the freezer! Started with half a bag of Cajun merpoux mix and went from there. I look forward to doing this whenever I have too many half-bags of vegetables lying around.
Very easy to make and everyone liked it in my household! I’ve made it twice now and will definitely be putting it into rotation.
I’d recommend topping with some Parmesan or Romano cheese as well.
Made this recipe but with a few different veggies. Used spinach, baby potatoes (pre cooked and added last)Italian seasoning. Served this on Italian sub rolls!! My company loved it!! Thanks for such a great recipe.
Made this recipe but with a few different veggies. Used spinach, baby potatoes (pre cooked and added last)Italian seasoning. Served this on Italian sub rolls!! My company l9vedvit!! Thanks for such a great recipe.
Thanks for this recipe! It’s so simple but so good. I made it with vegetarian sausage. My husband, who eats low-carb, added some additional cooked meat, I used it as a kind of fajita filling in a tortilla, and my 1 year old daughter enjoyed it topped with cheese!
Have you tried this with vegan Italian sausage?? Any notes on that experience??
I haven’t tried that, unfortunately! But this recipe is so simple that I bet it would probably work well.
So good and filling! I made this exactly as recommended and I love it. Definitely adding this one in to my regular meal prep rotation.
An egg on top maybe too?
Definitely!
Hi! Can you just use non frozen cauliflower, peppers and onions? If so, how would that alter cooking time? So excited for this, thank you!
I used fresh veggies because that’s what I had in the fridge–cooking time would depend on the size you cut your veggies and how soft or crisp you like them. I also used spinach because I didn’t have any kale. For me, it upped the prep time by about 5 minutes, but actual cooking time was about the same. I used spicy sausage and instead of adding more salt–sausage is very high in sodium–used a pinch of oregano. Hubs loved it!
Janet’s comment is spot on. :) You’ll probably just need to cook it longer since frozen vegetables are already partially cooked.
A half teaspoon of seasoning for more than 2 lbs of food? That can’t be right.
Season to your liking. :) It’s going to vary depending on the type of seasoning you use. The sausage brings a lot of herbs and spices to the dish already and the seasoning I used contains salt, so you don’t want to add a ton of it, otherwise, you’re over-salting the food.