Sausage and Sweet Potato Scramble

As a hunting family with a chest freezer filled with our year's protein stash, making a meal requires a little planning ahead. I've learned from experience that cooking a frozen fillet of Alaskan salmon doesn't turn out so hot, but I can get away with cooking up a frozen-solid block of ground venison with a little extra water and plenty of spatula chopping. Haute cuisine, indeed.

However, starting with meat that is not the consistency of the hardened ice crust covering our driveway right now usually turns out to be 1) easier to cook and 2) more reliable in its end product. Surprise surprise. 

It's February and taking inventory of the freezer, we've plowed through most of our venison steak, pheasant and grouse. We still have a good amount of walleye and salmon left, along with ground venison, but we always have an abundance of deer sausage. 

Brats, Italian sausage, country sausage - I will never complain of an excess of food, but I can only eat so much of it, so I've started to get a little more creative. To avoid the "we're having sausage for dinner" main course, instead I've been mixing bulk sausage into soups, stews, eggs, and sauteed veggies. Exhibit A: a breakfast dish of sausage, sweet potato, and spinach. I love the seasonality of sweet potatoes, which I always associate with winter, and their sweetness balance the sausage's subtle spice. The spinach adds color and a light, bright "veggie-ness" that lifts everything up. But best of all, it's easy. Just grab the cast-iron skillet and the (preferably thawed) bulk sausage. 

Sausage and Sweet Potato Scramble

1/2 pound bulk sausage, casings removed

1 small onion, chopped

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into small 1/2" pieces

5 oz. spinach, stemmed and chopped

Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage, breaking it up as it cooks. Cook for 3 mins, then add the onion and cook for another 2 mins. Add the sweet potato, cover and cook for 10 mins or until the sweet potato is softened (you may need to add a little water and lower the heat to prevent burning). Add spinach and stir to soften the spinach. Serve with eggs and toast.