Sweet Sausage & Kale over Polenta
I’ve been making this recipe for years—like ten years. I’ve adapted it from my many months of following Weight Watchers before I realized that whole program is bullshit, and that I’m just going to eat what I want in moderation, keeping in mind that my body naturally hates gluten and dairy (that works to my advantage). This recipe is gluten free, and the way I’m presenting it here is dairy free as well. It fits perfectly into an anti-inflammatory diet, which we’ve been considering for a few months to see how effective it might be. My husband also loves it when we have this for dinner.
Now, I’m not going to get into a whole Weight Watchers bashing thing here. I personally didn’t enjoy it, and I’ve tried various versions of it going on 25 years. I’m just not the type of person that’s going to spend her life weighing all her food on a scale, or searching for that low calorie bagel that’s only 2 points instead of 5. Fuck that. Eat the bagel, and have a salad for dinner. It’s all about balance. You want waffles for breakfast? Have the waffles, but have leafy greens and grilled protein for dinner. Dying for shrimp and grits? (Usually, yes.) Eat them, but take it easy over the next couple of days to help balance it out.
To be clear, this method of balancing what you eat, so that you can have that occasional binge of an entire pint of cashew milk ice cream, has taken me years to master. And I still have moments when I struggle, usually once a month where I can’t get enough pizza into my face, no matter how sick I get. I’m pretty proud of the fact that I’ve gone almost 60 days without pizza at the moment. I feel like I should have one of those “It’s been __ days since I screwed up and made myself sick for a week” signs.
A note about the protein in this recipe: Use what you like. Since I added red pepper flakes and a red chili tonight, I used sweet sausage to better control the heat and have a more balanced flavor. I usually use this amazing, spicy Italian turkey sausage from Whole Foods’ fancy section of the butcher counter, but I didn’t have a chance to get over there this week. I’ve also used chicken sausage, pork sausage, chicken breast (cubed), tofu, and mushrooms in this recipe, so it’s really flexible for almost any palate, and can easily go fully vegan.
Polenta. Italian grits. Much finer than traditional Southern USA grits, and yellow corn instead of white. It’s usually made with a combination of butter, cream, water or stock, and cheese, and tastes absolutely amazing that way. However, since we’re dairy free and trying this anti-inflammatory thing, I used vegetable stock, coconut milk, turmeric, and vegan butter. And they were pretty good that way, too. But if you want to make them with cream and cheese and butter, have at it. It’s good either way. I’m just trying to provide a healthier alternative here.
Ingredients:
- 1 package of sweet, Italian turkey sausage (around 1 pound)
- 2 small shallots
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 red chili
- 2 bushels of kale
- 1 cup white wine
- 1/2-1 cup stock
- Red pepper flake
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- Kosher salt
- Olive oil
For the polenta:
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 1/2 cups coconut or almond milk
- 1 1/2 cups stock or water
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 tablespoons Earthbalance vegan butter
- Kosher salt
Directions:
Food prep! Start by slicing up the shallots (I like them sliced for this because I think it goes well with the kale, but if you want to dice them, be my guest) and dicing the garlic and red chili. Rinse the kale and remove the leaves from the stems. Chop the leaves into large pieces. It’s going to look like you have too much kale, but it reduces to almost nothing.
Pour the coconut milk and stock into a sauce pan for the polenta with a pinch of salt and the turmeric. Measure the polenta into a separate cup and set aside.
Using either a stock pot or a large cast iron pan with a lid, heat about 1 tablespoon of olive oil with a good-sized pinch of red pepper flakes over medium heat. When hot, add the sausage by squeezing it out of the casing. Break up the sausage into small pieces and add a pinch of salt. Let the sausage brown by first releasing its water and bubbling away. When all the water has evaporated, and the meat is starting to brown, make a well in the center and add the shallots and red chili, a pinch of salt, and a teaspoon of fresh olive oil.
Stir the shallots and chili around in the middle until they’re starting to sweat, and then combine everything together. Cook for about 5 minutes until the shallots are translucent, and then add the garlic.
Allow the garlic to cook for about a minute—at this point, you should have a good layer of golden brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan (see the photo below for comparison). Time for wine! Pour in the wine and deglaze the pan by scraping all the brown bits into the wine. Let it reduce by half.
While the wine is reducing, turn the heat on the saucepan for the polenta to high, with the lid on.
Add the kale to the turkey sausage in two batches, sprinkling a little salt and half the nutmeg onto each batch. Using tongs, fold everything together. There should still be a bit of liquid in the bottom of the pan, but I add about 1/2 cup of stock at this point. Once the added stock bubbles, turn the heat down to low, and put a cover on the pan.
As soon as the milk/stock for the polenta boils, remove it from the heat (otherwise it’s going to boil over and make a huge mess on your stove). Pour the polenta into the hot liquid, whisking as you pour so that it doesn’t lump up. Return it to the heat on medium, and if it’s already bubbling, reduce the heat to low. Stir almost constantly for about 10 minutes or so - the polenta should thicken pretty fast.
At the 10 minute mark, take the lid off the kale and turkey sausage, and fold everything together. If there’s a good amount of liquid on the bottom of the pan, leave the lid off, and just let it reduce. You want to have a little liquid at the end, but it's not soup. Taste the kale and adjust seasonings if you need to.
When the polenta is nice and thick, add the vegan butter, and whip everything together. This incorporates a little air into the polenta, making it a bit fluffier. Taste the polenta and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if needed.
Plate by spooning polenta on the bottom of your dish, and ladling the turkey sausage and kale over the top. If you’re not dairy free, a little parmesan cheese is super yum here.
This recipe should make about 6 servings. Enjoy!
