Saturday, February 11, 2012

Primal Breakfast Casserole



On weekdays, I don't have enough time in the morning to cook myself breakfast.  So normally, I make a smoothie and drink it at the office.  But I found this great breakfast casserole recipe on Mark's Daily Apple and I couldn't wait to try it.  Since starting this diet, I'm always on the lookout for new vegetables/protein sources to cook with.  This recipe heavily features turnips and I'd never eaten a turnip so I was definitely intrigued.

I must sound like a broken record at this point, but this recipe is really easy to follow (and made even easier if you have the right equipment).

Special equipment recommended:
Food processor with grating blade attachment (but a cheese grater will also work)

Ingredients:
2 lbs. ground breakfast sausage (check the ingredients!)**
6 turnips, peeled and grated (the turnips I bought were huge so I think I only needed 3 of them - you're basically looking for enough turnip to almost fill a 13x9 baking dish so I would recommend putting each batch of grated turnip in the 13x9 dish and stop grating when you're 2/3-3/4 full)
8 eggs, beaten
6 scallions, chopped
*8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
*6 pieces of bacon, cooked and chopped

*This was not in the original recipe; I added it.
**I highly recommend using chorizo.  I tried it in this recipe for the first time recently and it completely improved the overall bland flavor profile.  I don't even need to add Cholula anymore.

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Saute sausage until almost cooked through; set aside.  Cook bacon and chop.
3. Saute mushrooms (I'd say this is optional; I didn't saute mine prior to cooking and they tasted fine)
4. Stir together cooked sausage with all other ingredients and pour into a 13x9 baking dish (this is a lot of ingredients to deal with, so I would recommend using a really big bowl)
5. Bake for 45 minutes, uncovered.
6. Cover with foil, bake 25 minutes more.
7. Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the taste of this dish.  It was filling but refreshing at the same time, thanks to the slight bite of the turnip.  I got into the habit of adding a splash of Cholula to each slice I prepared for myself each morning (I'd bring it to work and heat it up in the toaster oven).  I am still perfecting this recipe.  I've been having trouble with a rather unpleasant burnt crust along the sides and bottom of the pan.  I'm not sure if it's because I'm using a glass rather than opaque casserole dish or if I'm not greasing the pan heavily enough prior to pouring the ingredients in.  Either way, at least the middle is still delicious.  Happy cooking!




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