Kale, cauliflower, and turkey sausage pot pie aka nom nom

Last night I made a ridiculously good pot pie filled with some of my favorite edibles - kale, cauliflower and turkey sausage. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but this recipe is insane delicious. All three kids devoured it and the husband had 3 servings (so yes, it's kid friendly and husband approved)! It's adapted from a recipe I found on pintrest (obviously). I love to pull recipes from online, old cookbooks, and my mothers brain, and then make them my own with different spices, different meats, whatever floats my boat really.

Whenever a recipe calls for sausage or ground beef I always sub in turkey meat. I don't eat red meat, so neither does my family. It's considerably healthier to cook with turkey meat and it's every bit as delicious, trust me, it's one the easiest ways to eat cleaner! I also cook pretty much exclusively with organic vegetables when I can. It's just better for you. Period, end of story. I know it's expensive, but the thought of my kids ingesting all kinds of chemicals grosses me out. Go to farmers markets, grow your own garden, just make sure you are eating the best food that you can. It does make a difference.


Start by throwing some olive oil in a large sautée pan on medium high heat. Remove the casing from your turkey sausage, crumble it up and toss it in the pan. You want to cook it until it's got a nice crispy brown crust on the outside.

(I know my pictures are sh**y, but it's super hard to cook and photograph at the same time!!)Anyway,
 while this is cooking you want to chop up your two onions, get three cups of chicken broth ready (I always use bullion cubes, it's simply way more economical), and dice up the fresh thyme. Make sure the thyme is diced up super teensy. The original recipe called for fresh rosemary, which I did not have, so I subbed in the thyme and used dried rosemary.

Right before you're ready to pull the sausage out, toss in a hefty pinch of kosher sea salt and ground fresh cracked pepper. You really want to go heavy on the pepper. Then put a heaping tablespoon of garlic in. Let it just brown up, about 2 minutes, no longer. Burnt garlic is really yucky. Remove the sausage with a slotted spoon and transfer it to a large bowl.

Toss the onions into he drippings left behind from the sausage. Turkey sausage doesn't leave the same amount of grease in the pan as regular sausage, so you want to add another tablespoon or so of olive oil, use your judgement on how much you need. Add more salt and pepper and the thyme. Brown up the onions until they get a real nice carmelized look to them. Once the onions are done, in goes a heaping quarter cup of flour and the chicken broth. Let this simmer until it starts to thicken up, continually stirring everything.

Next you want to add your dried rosemary. I basically tossed a small handful in. It really adds an awesome flavor, so don't worry about putting too much in. The original recipe called for adding two teaspoons of white wine vinegar (which I did not have) so I added a splash of apple cider vinegar. Use whichever you please, but I vote for the apple cider! It gave the dish a really unexpected delish flavor. At this point I had to call the husband in to chop up the cauliflower and tear up the bunch of kale. You need to continually stir the onion mixture, and I didn't have enough hands too get it all done! So you guys want to do that before you start cooking!

Add the kale in small handfuls, and as it starts to wilt you want to toss in your cauliflower. Let it
simmer for about 5 minutes. While it's getting all bubbly and yummy on the stovetop, you want to pull out your 9x13 baking dish. Dump the bubbly goodness into the dish, and add the reserved sausage. Stir it all together well.

Open the puff pastry and cut it up into little rectangles. You want each person to get a section of the pastry without having to cut up the pot pie, so picture single serving sizes. Top the dish with the pastry and cook it in the oven for about 30-35 minutes. You want the top to be a nice crispy golden brown.

As I said the reason I cut the pastry up so small initially was so that you had instant severing sizes and didn't have to make a huge mess trying to cut it up. As you can see, it worked perfectly (brushes shoulders off).

Here is the original recipe, my tweaks are highlighted in bold.

Serves 8| Hands-On Time: 25m| Total Time: 1hr 00
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil I used quite a bit more than this, use your discretion
1 pound sweet Italian sausage links, casings removed and meat broken into 3/4-inch pieces I used the sweet turkey sausage
2 medium onions, chopped Organic
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary Swapped the fresh rosemary for thyme and a small handful of dried rosemary
kosher salt and black pepper Fresh ground pepper, very coarse
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 bunch kale, torn into bite-size pieces (about 10 cups) Organic
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar Or a splash of Apple cider vinegar
1 small head cauliflower (about 2 pounds), cut into florets Organic
2 sheets puff pastry (one 17.3-ounce package), each cut into 4 rectangles Cut into single serving sized pieces


Directions
1. Heat oven to 400° F. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and
cook, tossing occasionally, until browned, 4 to 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to a large bowl.
2. Add the onions, rosemary, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper to the drippings in the skillet 
and cook, stirring, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the broth and simmer until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the kale, vinegar, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook, tossing, until the kale is wilted, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add the kale mixture and cauliflower to the sausage and toss to combine. Transfer to a 9-by-13-inch or some other 3-quart baking dish and top with the puff pastry, overlapping the rectangles slightly.
4. Bake until the pastry is golden and the filling is bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving. I needed to cook mine for about 10 minutes longer. Use your discretion, you'll know when it's done.

• Calories per serving  443

• Fat 24g
• Sat Fat 7g
• Cholesterol 19mg
• Sodium 901mg
• Protein 19g
• Carbohydrate 39g
• Sugar 4g
• Fiber 4g
• Iron 4mg
• Calcium 143mg

What does this mean? See Nutrition