One Pan Creamy Lemon and Dill Sausage and Beans

Ignore the scuffed photo. I may have messed that up and thought the good one saved but it didn't. Alas, we move on and the picture will just need to not do the dish justice because it is DELICIOUS!

This is one of my favorite weeknight recipes. It's a bit of a play on a HelloFresh meal but changed up a bit to be more fiber dense and slightly lower fat. HOORAY BEANS! While I love all the heavy cream from the HF meal, I always thought we could try something a little different but still extract the important flavors. Lets get into it!

Ingredients

• 8oz italian sausage. You can use chicken sausage or pork, whichever you prefer.

• 2 cups chopped kale

• 1 lemon

• 1 bunch of Fresh Dill (if you don't have fresh, dried will be okay)

• 1 16oz can of cannellini beans

• 1-2 cloves of garlic

• 3 TBSP of blended cottage cheese

• 1/2 cup stock or a tsp of stock concentrate

• Lemon Pepper to taste

• Red Chili Flakes to taste

• Parmesan to taste

Preparation

1. Prep:

   1. Pick the leaves off the Kale from the stems and chop into bite size pieces

   2. Pick the leaves off the dill and chop.

   3. Zest and juice lemon.

   4. Mince garlic

2. Preheat a large rounded skillet (or a large pot if you prefer) over medium heat. Drizzle oil to coat the pan. Once preheated, you can start the sausage

3. Cook Sausage: In the same pan, cook the sausage in a thin layer in the pan and leave undisturbed until golden brown on one side. Once it's golden brown, use a spatula to break up the sausage and cook through. Season with salt and pepper and lemon pepper if desired.

4. Add Cottage Cheese: Once sausage is cooked throughout, add the cottage cheese to the pan along with your stock OR 1/2 cup of water with the concentrate. TIP: allow the cream cheese to heat up slightly before mixing in the water. This will help it emulsify a bit easier. If you'd like to use milk instead of water, that will work as well and make it creamier.

5. Add Beans and Kale: Drain and rinse the beans and add to the mixture. Bring the mixture up to a simmer and cook until reduced and thickened. Add kale as well and stir until incorporated.

6. Stir in half of the chopped dill, half the lemon zest, squeeze of lemon juice, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper to preferred taste. Add parmesan if desired. Be mindful of salt/pepper since there will be salt in the parm, the stock, as well as the sausage.

7. Serve: Garnish with remaining dill, lemon zest, a squeeze of lemon juice, and red pepper flakes if desired.

Tips and Best Practices

• You can substitute the cottage cheese for cream cheese if that's what you have. Personally, I love the taste of cottage cheese but the texture doesn't work for me so I blend it.

• Add in other veggies you have! Onion and Zucchini are a great addition to this dish.

• If you want it to be a bit more filling, you can add couscous or another grain.