Delicious and Easy Vegetable Cheese Sausage Breakfast Casserole And Christmas Tree

I’ve always enjoyed breakfast casseroles and have made, and posted about, many of them over the years and lately I decided I really, really like them as they can be made then eaten on for several days.  For this one, I used the recipe for Easy Vegetable Cheese Sausage Breakfast Casserole from Serious Eats and I made it as shown below.

Easy Vegetable Cheese Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed

12 ounces sweet Italian sausage (I used 16oz)

5 ounces thinly sliced fresh mushrooms (I used 8oz)

1 small onion (6 ounces) thinly sliced (about 1 cup sliced)

1½ teaspoon kosher salt, divided; for table salt use half as much by volume

½ cup drained and chopped sundried tomatoes in oil (3 ounces)

3 medium garlic cloves, minced

5 ounces fresh baby spinach

6 ounces shredded Gouda (1½ cups)

10 large eggs (I used 8 jumbo eggs)

1/3 cup sour cream

1½ cups half-and-half

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Directions:

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F

Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with oil; set aside.

In a 12-inch skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high until shimmering. Add sausage and using a wooden spoon, break it up. Using a slotted spoon, transfer sausage to a paper towel–lined plate. Reserve 2 tablespoons rendered fat in skillet to cook mushrooms.

Add mushrooms, stir to coat in oil, and spread in an even layer. Cook without moving until bottoms of mushrooms are browned, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium.

Add onion, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon oil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions soften and mushrooms are browned all over, about 8 minutes.

Add sundried tomatoes and garlic; cook, stirring often, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add spinach in 2 additions, stirring often and letting spinach completely wilt before adding more.

Transfer vegetable mixture, and sausage (if using), to prepared baking dish.

Stir in cheese until combined, and spread mixture in an even layer.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs until no streaks remain.

Whisk in sour cream in 3 additions until no lumps remain.

Whisk in half-and-half, mustard, and remaining 1 teaspoon salt until combined.

Pour egg mixture over mushroom mixture in baking dish; gently stir until egg mixture is evenly distributed.

Bake, uncovered, until cooked through, about 35 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes. Slice and serve.

The Verdict:

This is the only breakfast casserole I’ve seen that uses Italian rather than breakfast sausage but since we love Italian, Bev and I both thought it was delicious and would make it again.  It was cheesy and melt in your mouth - except for the meat.  I used a pound of sausage as that is what came in the package but the original recipe 12 ounces would be plenty.  I made it the day before and even though it sat out for an hour or so, it took over an hour to cook and required covering with foil after about 45 minutes. 

Christmas Tree

Once again, Bev did a great job decorating our artificial Christmas tree – Eliza removed all of the presents the day before.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/3/25 event date