Italian Sausage Yam and Spinach with Mushrooms Carrots and Tomatoes
Spice up your basic meat and veggies bowl with this fabulous dinner recipe. This bowl has Italian sausage and yams baked in the oven and tossed with sautéed mushrooms, tomatoes and shredded carrots. Top it off with creamy tomato sauce and spinach, and you have the perfect healthy and cozy dinner with lots of flavor – so good and so easy to make!
Inspiration and thoughts
This is the perfect quick and healthy dinner and only takes 30 minutes to make. This recipe was partly inspired by my relief that the weather is getting a bit cooler! It is still pretty hot here in San Diego but this week we caught a bit of a cool down, thankfully. I usually love the summer and a bit of heat for the beach and everything outdoorsy, but with everything going on this year and not being able to go to the beach, I am ready for cooler weather!
We have had a few cooler nights where I was actually cold at night, so I had to make something warm and cozy of course. Enter this fabulous recipe. I absolutely love roasting things in the oven but try not to when it’s hot outside. With fall here, I love adding yams and sweet potatoes into my meals even more than I usually do. I prefer roasting them because they are just so much more crispy and browned. I prefer this to boiling them or cooking them over the stovetop, and it also prevents them from getting mashed up and soggy when mixed with other ingredients.
Another great thing about this recipe is the way I love to prepare ground Italian sausage. Instead of cooking it on the stove I’ve adopted the oven method: by just taking small chunks of sausage, adding it to the pan, and baking it instead! It is so easy and the little sausage chunks baked in the oven are perfectly cooked, a bit crispy on the outside, and so delicious.
How it’s made, notes
This one is easy and quick, and a lot of the prepping you can do while the meat and yams are cooking in the oven. Start with preheating the oven to 400 F and prepare a large baking sheet. Peel the yam and cut it into small cubes. I like to cut the yam into pretty small cubes to make sure they cook through in the 20 minutes, into about half inch to an inch thick at most little cubes. Add these to the pan and sprinkle with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.
Now grab your ground Italian sausage. With clean hands, tear apart small chunks and add it to the pan. I never measure out the chunks, just take apart the sausage piece by piece and add it to the pan. So easy. Bake that for 20 minutes.
While those are in the oven, chop up your garlic, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. When the oven time for the sausage and yams is half way done, heat up a large skillet or cast iron with a bit of oil on medium high meat. Add the garlic and sauté until browned, about one minute, then add the mushrooms, carrots, and cherry tomatoes. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until everything is cooked though, then turn down the heat a bit. Add the pasta sauce and mix everything together and cook (stirring occasionally) until the yams and sausage are done.
Turn off the oven and pour the sausage and yams right from the pan into the skillet. Mix everything together and cook for another 1-2 minutes just to combine – the meat and yams will still be hot from the oven.
Lastly, add the spinach to the mix and cook another minute or two more. The spinach will wilt quickly into the mix. Serve generously into bowls.
Enjoy!
Italian Sausage Yam and Spinach with Mushrooms Carrots and Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground Italian sausage
- 1 large yam cut into small cubes
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 8 oz mushrooms sliced
- 2 cup cherry tomatoes chopped into small slices
- 2 cups tomato-based pasta sauce
- 2 cups spinach
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F and prepare a large baking sheet.
- Add the cubed yam pieces to the baking pan and sprinkle olive oil, salt and pepper. Separate the Italian sausage into small chunks with clean hands and add them right onto the baking sheet (see notes). Bake for 20 minutes.
- Chop the mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and kale. When the yam and Italian sausage have only ten more minutes to go, add a bit of olive oil to a large sized skillet or cast iron and heat on medium high until nice and hot. Add the sliced garlic and cook until just browned, about 1 minutes. Add the mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and shredded carrots to the pan and add a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Sauté for 3-4 minutes, until the everything is cooked through.
- Turn the heat down to medium heat and add the pasta sauce to the skillet or cast iron. Mix with the veggies until the yam and Italian sausage pieces are done from the oven, and until the pasta sauce warms up.
- Add the yam and Italian sausage to the sauce mix and cook for 1-2 minutes, combining everything together.
- Lastly, add the spinach and stir until the it is wilted and completely mixed with the other ingredients. Serve into bowls and enjoy!
I never thought to bake the Italian Sausage instead of pan cooking which makes a mess. I am going to try this recipe this week since I just bought a big bag of sweet potatoes from Costco. This recipe looks yummy with all of the different flavors and simple. I am going to use spinach and omit the carrots so there is no sweetness.
That sounds great! Yes it’s such easy clean up, and sweet potatoes are also tasty with this one! that will make up for the carrot color : ) Thank you!