Improv: Sausage, Squash, and Goat Cheese Skillet

It's time for this month's 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 squash and sage. Lovely fall ingredients.  It didn't take me long to decide what to make.  There was a sausage and butternut squash skillet recipe in an issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray that I had been wanting to try for a while.  Sausage, squash, and sage seems like a fantastic combo.  This was the perfect opportunity to try this dish.  I changed it up a little bit (of course!), the biggest change being the addition of goat cheese.  It just seemed to fit.  Here's how I made it.

Sausage, Squash, and Goat Cheese Skillet

Ingredients:

2 lbs. ground sausage

4 cups butternut squash, ½” cubes (1 lb.)

2 tsp dried sage

½ cup beef broth

½ cup goat cheese crumbles

Directions:

Heat large skillet over medium heat.  Add sausage and break up with a spoon.  Cook until sausage is browned and fat has rendered.  Add butternut squash and dried sage.  Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the beef broth, cover, and reduce heat to low.  Cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until squash is tender.  Uncover, stir, and let cook for just another minute or two.  Remove from heat and top with goat cheese crumbles.

Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition Info

Per Serving

Calories:  444

Fat: 34

Sat. Fat: 12

Cholesterol: 112

Sodium: 906

Potassium: 282

Carbs (net): 8

Protein: 25

Vitamin A: 170%

Vitamin C: 28%

Calcium: 4%

Iron: 10%

Oh man, this was so yummy!  And besides cutting up the squash (which I always hate!), pretty easy. I wanted to buy the pre-cut squash in a bag, but my store didn't have it. I bought the smallest butternut squash they had, and it ended up being the exact perfect amount for this recipe.  Love it when that happens!

Any of you who are fans of the sweet and salty combo will love this dish.  The sweetness of the squash is so perfect with the saltiness of the sausage and the creaminess of the goat cheese.  Mmm.

I used dried sage because I can never chop fresh sage small enough so that I don't feel like I'm eating bits of leaves.  Not palatable for me. I only use fresh sage for stuffing in a turkey cavity. :) But the dried was perfect for this recipe.  I know you can buy a sage variety of sausage; if you do that, you might want to cut down on the dried sage you add.  

I used beef broth because I happened to have an open container in the fridge. You can certainly use chicken or veggie broth instead. Water would even be fine if you didn't have any kind of broth.

My husband and I have been low carbing for a while now, and I have not allowed myself butternut squash yet this fall. :( So sad, I know! I love butternut squash, but it is a little carby.  But I was glad when this came out to 8 carbs per serving, because that is totally doable.  I consider any main dish recipe under 10 carbs/serving to be low carb, so this counts for me.  This dish kind of reminds me of one of my favorite pasta dishes: Roasted Squash and Sausage Pasta.  This is kind of the low carb version of that!

This will be my go-to dish whenever the butternut squash cravings get too much to bear.  Looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch today!

Be sure to check out all the other great squash and sage recipes below and come back next month to see what I make with cranberry and orange.

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