Sausage Kebabs with Fig Sauce

So last night I made sausage kebabs with fig sauce, garlic greens and lemony cauliflower. It was a really yummy, fresh meal with a good variety in flavors. The combo was great, so I decided to share all three recipes together! I was excited about the greens recipe because it is a super healthy dish, and it can be hard to find tasty recipes for greens. This one is so good that I’d eat a big bowl of it on it’s own or over brown rice as a meal.

These recipes are really simple, but you have to remember that it is the little things that make something taste amazing. For these particular recipes, using fresh garlic instead of jarred or frozen crushed garlic, buying good quality balsamic vinegar and olive oil, using fresh squeezed lemon juice instead of the bottled stuff, using sea salt instead of iodized salt, using freshly ground pepper and freshly grating your parmesan instead of buying pre-shredded are all going to make the HUGE difference in the end result. It does add a little more work, but it is definitely worth it. Also, I probably won’t ever put olive oil, salt or pepper on a recipe ingredients list because it is in EVERYTHING I cook.

SAUSAGE KEBABS W/ FIG SAUCE

1 Pkg Sweet Italian sausages
15-20 multi-colored cherry tomatoes
1 Onion, cut into big chunks
Handful of basil leaves
6 Tbl fig jam
2 Tbl balsamic vinegar

Cut the sausages into 1” sections and assemble on skewers with the cherry tomatoes, basil leaves and onion chunks. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, then grill on the BBQ until sausage is browned and cooked through. While the kebabs are resting, combine the fig jam and balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until combined and it reaches a good texture. Pour the sauce over the kebabs and serve.

LEMONY CAULIFLOWER

1 head cauliflower
3 green onions, sliced thing from the white to light green part
Juice from half a lemon
Zest from half a lemon
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Cut up the cauliflower into 1” pieces and put into skillet with a few tablespoons of olive oil. Toss the cauliflower to coat and then turn on the burner to medium-high. Over the course of about 6-7 minutes, let the cauliflower brown on the bottom of the pan, stirring every minute or so. This will give the cauliflower a nice even brown. Don’t worry, you’re not burning it, you are browning it. In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper, parmesan, garlic and green onions. Once the cauliflower is evenly browned, turn the burner off and at the mixture to the pan. Stir together, it will cook a little more because the pan is still hot. Then serve!

GARLIC GREENS

1 bunch of kale
1 bag of baby spinach
6-8 cloves of garlic, minced

Tear the leafy parts away from the stem on your kale and tear into bite sized pieces. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat and let the pan get really hot. Add one leaf of kale into the pan If it sizzles, put the rest in and stir. If it doesn’t, let the pan get hotter. After you give the kale a good stir into the olive oil, add the spinach. This will reduce A LOT. When all of the leaves are pretty wilted and still green, turn the burner off and add your minced garlic. Do 8 cloves if you love garlic like me, do 6 if you just like it. Also, if the spiciness of fresh, uncooked garlic bothers you, add it to the pan about a minute before you turn off the burner and cook it a bit. I happen to absolutely love the flavor, so I just stir it into the hot pan after it’s done cooking. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and you’re done.


This is the kind of food that I really love to cook because it is whole and natural but delicious too. I also feel really good about feeding it to my family because they are getting a wide variety of nutrients. Hope you like it!!!