Party Panache, Sausage, Mushroom & Kale Dip
We had this for an Alabama Game recently. Our game day parties always feature at least one dip, the guests love milling around and grabbing a nosh of some kind all through out the game. I saw this dip featured on the Martha Stewart show recently…yes, I turn it on occasionally when I’m working in the kitchen, and yes I find her very annoying, but I DO get a lot of tips and ideas from her…this dip intrigued me because of the kale so I put it on my Bucket List of recipes to try.
I decided to try chicken sausage in this dip since I was getting all healthy with kale and everything…ha ha ha…
This dip was really good, and a nice change from standard spinach artichoke dip. The chicken sausage [with apple and maple] gave it a sweet and tangy twist and kept it lighter than traditional sausage. It goes together pretty quick too.
Throw the kale into a pot of salted water and let cook for 4-5 minutes. I have warned you before, I cook messy…..
start browning the sausage.
Remove the sausage and give it a chop while you’re sauteing the onion in the same skillet the sausage was cooked in.
At this point I threw the chopped sausage back into the skillet with the onion to ensure that it was cooked all the way through.
Put sausage and onion into a large mixing bowl. Add mushrooms to skillet and drizzle with a little Olive Oil and saute until golden.
Drain cooked kale and give it a chop too…you don’t want your guests to have big hunks of kale hanging about…
See the sausage still on the board, well, I get crazy and I cook FAST and in the grand scheme of things it really doesn’t matter because it will all end up in the same place anyway!
Time to make the cheesy sauce. Melt butter and toss in the flour [you should really let the butter melt all the way first but I was really impatient apparently!]
When the roux starts to brown and bubble, stir well until smooth
then add milk…
Again you caught me, you can see little bits of mushroom that were hiding in the skillet. The secret to getting things moving along quickly is to use your skillet wisely. If you follow the progression of the recipe, you won’t have to clean your skillet until the recipe is complete. Let the sauce simmer and stir it occasionally and it will gradually come together and thicken.
Now add the cream cheese and the Parmesan and stir to melt and blend
Season and stir
and your reward will be this lovely ooey, gooey, cheesy sauce. Hey, we used lots of low fat ingredients right? And remember the kale? And the chicken sausage? Why this must be HEALTH FOOD! Ok, healthier food? Ok, well, it’s a party right?
Toss all this yummy lusciousness together and put into a casserole dish [sprayed with cooking oil spray]
Bake at 375 about 25 minutes until heated and bubbly. Use a sturdy dipper such as Stacy’s Naked Pita Chips or toasted baguette slices as this is a dense and hardy dip.
This recipe was on my bucket list this month as Kale, Sausage & Mushroom Dip
SAUSAGE, MUSHROOM & KALE DIP
Ingredients
- 8-12 oz curly kale ( stemmed and torn
- 1/2 pound chicken sausage with maple and apple [or use spicy Italian sausage]
- 1 medium sweet onion chopped
- 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms sliced
- 2 T all-purpose flour
- 1 cup 2% milk
- 2 T butter
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese reserve a little for topping
- 4 oz. low fat cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Tortilla chips or toasted baguette slices for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees; butter or spray a 1 1/2-quart baking dish and set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat; generously salt water and return to a boil. Add kale and cook until tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold running water to cool. Squeeze water from kale until completely dry. Finely chop and place in large mixing bowl.
- Place sausage in a large skillet and cook, stirring, until brown; transfer sausage to a board and chop. Saute onion in skillet until transparent and add sausage back to skillet and cook for 1-2 minutes to brown on all sides. Remove sausage and onion to mixing bowl with kale.
- Place mushrooms in skillet skillet and cook, stirring, until lightly brown and tender, about 5 minutes. transfer mushrooms to bowl with kale, onions and sausage.
- Melt butter in skillet on medium-high, add flour and stir to form a roux. Add milk cook until mixture just begins to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, whisking often, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup Parmesan; stir in lemon zest, 2 teaspoons salt, and pepper. Transfer cheese mixture to bowl with kale mixture and mix until fully combined.
- Transfer kale mixture to prepared baking dish; top with remaining Parmesan. Bake until heated through, about 25 minutes.
- Serve dip with tortilla chips or toasted baguette.
- This makes enough for 10-12 hungry fans!
Here’s the recipe:
Our favorite teams are:
ALABAMA, Roll Tide! Hungry Husband, HHjr and AP [HH’s sister] are proud Alumni
OLE MISS, Hotty Toddy! Darling Daughter is alum
USC, Fight on! My brother in laws and sister’s alma mater
CSUC, California State University Chico, Go Wildcats! My alma mater
and sometimes, when Alabama isn’t playing them
AUBURN, War Eagle! My son-in-law’s favorite team. How did he ever get into this family!
RSS - Posts
