classic sausage and peppers made more nutritious with more veggies, whole grain pasta and chicken sausage
Growing up we had sausage and peppers at least once a month. While inherently it’s a pretty healthy dish loaded with protein and veggies, there are a few tweaks that I made to my mom’s classic recipe to bump up the nutrition in it even more.
I swapped out the regular spaghetti for whole grain, bumping up the fiber in the dish. I also swapped the traditional pork sausage for chicken sausage lowering the saturated fat a bit and upped the number of peppers my mom typically used.
Other than that, you can expect the same great flavor you would typically get from this dish! Loaded with protein, veggies and whole grains, it makes for a simple weeknight dinner that serves up a good amount of nutrition with each bite.
I also love this dish because it’s FAST and who doesn’t love a weeknight dinner that comes together quickly with minimal cleanup? With kids being back in school (or going back to school yourself!) and the craziness that brings with it, it’s always nice to have a few quick and easy meals on hand for those nights when you really don’t have it in you to make anything too elaborate (for me lately that feels like just about every night!).
Hopefully your household enjoys this dish as much as ours does!
Ingredients
- 1 box whole wheat angel hair pasta
- 1 lb chicken sausage, halved
- 3 bell peppers
- I large onion, grated
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup pasta sauce or 2 tablespoons tomato paste mixed with 1 cup red wine
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Freshly shaved parmesan
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package instructions
- Meanwhile, wash, core, de-seed and slice peppers.
- Place a non-stick pan over medium heat and add olive oil, onion, garlic and pepper strips. Saute pepper strips until just tender (about 3 minutes) then remove peppers from the pan and set aside.
- Add oregano, italian seasoning, salt & pepper to the pan with the onion and garlic and stir for about 30 seconds. Add tomato sauce (or tomato paste & wine mixture) stirring to combine then simmer for 8 to 10 minutes on low.
- Halve the chicken sausages and then, in another non-stick pan pan, place sausage face down until just browned (about 30 seconds to 1 minute). Repeat on the other side.
- Add sausage to pan with the sauce and simmer for 5 minutes then add peppers, stir and serve over cooked pasta. Top with freshly shaved parmesan.
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