20 March 2014


It's time for the Improv Challenge!


The premise of the Improv Challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.

This month's assigned ingredients were sausage and mushrooms.  What a great combo!  It's so great that I already have a couple of sausage and mushroom recipes on my blog: Sausage Pizza Joes and my all-time favorite sausage and mushroom dish Sausage and Mushroom Ragu over Polenta.  When I was preparing for this month's Improv Challenge, I realized that I had made two different recipes recently with sausage and mushrooms.  One was a sausage and mushroom alfredo rigatoni and then there's this one from Hillshire Farm.

Honey Mustard Smoked Sausage and Veggies

Ingredients:
⅓ cup honey
¼ cup Dijon mustard
1 tbsp soy sauce
¼ tsp garlic powder
1 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp cornstarch
2 tbsp olive oil
4 medium carrots (about 12 oz.), peeled and sliced diagonally
½ large onion, chopped
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
13-16 oz. smoked sausage, sliced diagonally
Hot cooked rice or egg noodles

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the honey, mustard, soy sauce, garlic powder, ginger, and cornstarch.  Whisk until smooth.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the carrots and sauté a few minutes.  Add the onions and mushrooms and cook until the veggies are softened a bit.  Add the sausage and cook until carrots reach desired tenderness.  Pour in the sauce, reduce heat to low, and cook a few more minutes, until sauce is heated through and thickened slightly.

Serve over cooked rice or egg noodles.

Makes 4 servings.

Note: This recipe is gluten-free if served over rice instead of noodles.



This dish is always a big hit at my house.  My kids love smoked sausage.  And while they're not crazy about mushrooms, they like the carrots and the noodles too, so I don't feel like they're missing out on too much.  


This is the sausage I used this last time I made it.  Much better than the original version.  Johnsonville has several different varieties of lower fat turkey and chicken smoked sausage.  I tried the chicken apple one in a different recipe and it was really yummy.  Any variety of smoked sausage would be good in this recipe.  (No, this isn't a sponsored post for Johnsonville; I just like their smoked sausage.)

This recipe is also great because you can use whatever veggies your family likes or you happen to have on hand.  Celery, bell peppers, green beans, peas, zucchini, and lima beans would all work well I think.

Be sure to check out all the great sausage and mushroom recipes below and come back next month to see what I come up with for "ebony and ivory"!



   

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6 comments:

  1. Smoked sausage never even crossed my mind! Great idea!

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  2. I am so glad you went the smoked sausage route. It's one of my favorites!

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  3. I would've never thought to use sausage in a dish like this.

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  4. Karen - Cinnamon FreudMarch 21, 2014 at 4:26 PM

    Yum, looks great!

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  5. Kate | Food BabblesMarch 22, 2014 at 5:42 PM

    Oh my goodness, this sounds SO good! Love the smoked sausage here. So creative. All the flavors going on here sound fantastic!

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  6. mmmmmmmmmmm -- YUMMY! I ♥ making honey mustard!

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