Anyone have Easter brunch plans this weekend? I’m sure, if you do, you already have your recipes and grocery lists figured out, but in case you don’t, put these 5 Ingredient Sweet Potato-Apple Breakfast Sausages on your menu! They are easy to make, serve a small crowd, and can be made ahead, which means you won’t be stressing in the kitchen the morning of your brunch.
The first time I made these (they were just slightly different), was when we hosted a family brunch for my parent’s birthdays. With 13 hungry people coming, I knew I needed something that would taste great with the other dishes I was making, and that I could make ahead. These fit into the menu perfectly and were a hit!
Parties and Easter brunches aside, I now make these Sweet Potato-Apple Breakfast Sausages so I have a quick and healthy, protein-heavy breakfast at my fingertips. I make a batch of them, pop most in the freezer, and then pull some out to reheat for breakfast. It makes for a nice change from eggs or other options and is quicker too. For that reason, I have based the recipe on 2 pounds of ground meat, which sounds like a lot, but since they can be frozen, I like to make a few more up front. It doesn’t take much more time than making half the amount, and then I don’t have to make them as often.
Why Homemade Sausage
I know, it may seem tedious to make your own sausages, given the abundance of packaged sausages on grocery store shelves, but trust me, these Sweet Potato-Apple Breakfast Sausages are WAY healthier and truly don’t take long to make since they only have 5 ingredients (not counting the salt, pepper, and oil). Give this a try sometime – look at the ingredients on the packages of some breakfast sausages in the supermarket. Do you understand every ingredient? Not me, and I’m trained in food and nutrition!
Besides the ingredients I can’t understand, sugar almost always makes up one or more of the ingredients in a typical breakfast sausage. I usually serve something sweet and treat-like at a brunch, but I sure don’t need the sugar to be in my breakfast sausage. That’s supposed to be the “savory” element of the meal, right? Not that I’m not above scraping a bite of sausage through pure maple syrup that has dripped off my pancakes and is pooling on my plate…that’s totally legit!
Beyond just the health difference, it’s fun to put together interesting combinations of ingredients in breakfast sausage, which is another reason I like to make my own. For these Sweet Potato-Apple Breakfast Sausages, I bulked them up with healthy sweet potato and apple. Both add natural sweetness, while boosting the nutritional value. Plus, they help keep the calories and saturated fat lower compared to a more traditional meat-only breakfast sausages.
I hope you all have a most wonderful Easter weekend, and if you don’t have time to whip these Sweet Potato-Apple Breakfast Sausages together for brunch this weekend, I hope you try them in the future.
P.S. If you follow a gluten-free diet, you’re covered with these Sweet Potato-Apple Breakfast Sausages because they are gluten free. And, as a bonus for those who can’t eat eggs or dairy and don’t want to eat sugar, they are also egg free, dairy free, and no-sugar-added.
Sweet Potato-Apple Breakfast Sausages How-To Photos:
Cook chopped onion in a skillet for a few minutes.
Add shredded sweet potato and cook a few minutes more.
This softens the potato and onion so they will be tender in the sausages.
Combine ground pork (or turkey) with the spices (there are three optional spices you can add, which I like to do and am showing here).
Add the potato/onion mixture and some shredded apple (I used a Granny Smith apple – any cooking apple will work great).
Mix well.
Set up a pan like this (or use two pans if you don’t have a large enough wire rack). This makes the sausages cook without sitting in their juices and the clean-up is easier too!
Use 1/4 cup meat mixture per sausage. Shape into 1/2-inch thick round patties.
The full batch of sausages will fit snuggly on the rack. Leave just a little space between the sausages.
Bake until sausages are cooked through.
For browner tops, you can broil them for the last 3 minutes of the bake time.
Serve with your favorite breakfast and brunch foods!
- ¾ cup finely chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil or refined coconut oil
- 1 cup coarsely shredded, peeled sweet potato*
- 2 pounds lean ground pork or lean ground turkey
- 1 medium cooking apple, cored, peeled if desired, and coarsely shredded*
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- ¾ teaspoon coarse salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Optional Ingredients
- ¾ teaspoon caraway seeds or fennel seeds, crushed**
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a large shallow baking pan (such as a half sheet pan) with foil. Set a large wire cooling rack in the pan. (You may have to set up two pans like this if you don’t have a large enough pan or cooling rack). Set pan(s) aside.
- In a large skillet cook onion in hot oil over medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add shredded sweet potato. Cook 3 minutes more, stirring occasionally. If vegetables start to brown too quickly, turn heat to medium-low. Remove from the heat.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine pork, apple, sage, salt, and black pepper. If desired, add desired optional ingredients (caraway or fennel seeds, crushed red pepper, and/or cloves). Add sweet potato and onion. Mix well. Shape meat mixture into ½-inch thick round sausages, using ¼ cup meat mixture per sausage. Place sausages on cooling rack in the pan, leaving about ½-inch space between sausages.
- Bake sausages for 18 to 22 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into sides of sausages registers 160°F. For browner tops, turn the oven to broil for the last 3 minutes of the bake time (make sure the pan is in the center of the oven so the tops don’t get over brown).
- *For quicker shredding, use the shredder attachment of a food processor.
- **Use a clean spice grinder or coffee grinder to crush the caraway or fennel seeds.
- These sausages freeze well. To freeze, cool sausages 10 to 15 minutes after baking. Layer sausages in an airtight freezer container, placing a sheet of waxed paper between layers. To serve, remove as many of the sausages as desired. To reheat sausages, place on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake at 400°F until warmed through. Or, place in a covered microwave-safe casserole dish and microwave on 50% power (medium) until warmed through.
- 18 sausages
- 131 cals, 9 g pro, 4 g carb, 9 g fat, 34 mg cholesterol, 2.5 g sat fat, 1 g fiber, 119 mg sodium
