Gut Healthy Breakfast Hash - Easy Batch Cooking
This power packed breakfast is anti-inflammatory, super easy, and an amazing batch cook option to optimise your time AND your health.
Having a savoury breakfast is also one of the best things you can do to balance your blood sugar, curb food cravings and energy crashes and fuel your day with energy and focus.
It’s a true power play life hack that will rock your world.
And while it might seem there’s a lot of steps or ingredients, know that when you make this you’re setting yourself up for the next 4 mornings, or it also makes an amazing to-go lunch or family dinner.
Your gut is going to LOVE the diversity of phytonutrients in this one!
INGREDIENTS:
1 medium sized sweet potato chopped into bite sized cubes and lightly steamed (about 5 minutes) or until just starting to get tender to the fork. *If you don’t like sweet potatoes that’s fine, try out other things! I like using celeriac, cabbage, cauliflower, parsnips, yellow beats, plantains, butternut squash, and of course, if you don’t have an issue with nightshades, regular old potatoes are fantastic!
About 4 quality, mild Italian sausages removed from casing and cooked in a large frying pan. Breaking apart and letting get crispy and delicious. Once done, remove from frying pan, along with any excess oil… or leave it in and skip adding oil to the pan for the next part! (You can use chicken, turkey or beef sausages too, or skip altogether and use eggs or whatever you tolerate and enjoy as the protein.)
1 - 2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil, coconut or avocado oil.
½ or a whole onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (you can also use 1 tsp garlic powder)
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
About 1 cup chopped broccoli, roughly chopped. I like to take the take the tough outer skin off the broccoli stalk and use that too. My mom taught me to use as much of a plant as you can and the stalks are crunchy and delicious!
A good handful of Brussels sprouts, roughly chopped
3 stalks celery, diced
¼ ish cup fresh parsley, chopped
A few sprigs of thyme and some rosemary, chopped. You can use dried herbs as well, about a 1/2 tsp of each.
TOOLS:
A very large frying pan. If you don’t have one feel free to cut this recipe in half so you have space for things to crisp and cook.
Pot and a steamer for the sweet potatoes
INSTRUCTIONS:
Prepare and partially cook your sweet potatoes. I like to do this in a steaming basket so they retain the most nutrients, then remove and set aside.
Heat a LARGE frying pan over medium heat and cook the sausages that have been removed from their casing, and continuously break them apart until they’re all crispy and delicious! Then remove from pan and set aside.
Using the same frying pan (we’re gong to collect all that delicious crispy flavour from the bottom of the pan, and you’re gonna LOVE it!) add 1 or so TBSP of preferred oil and add all the veggies, (except the parsley) including the sweet potatoes, and sauté until tender. About 10ish minutes.
Add sausage, stir and cook until everything’s singing together. About 5 minutes.
Sprinkle the parsley over top and serve.
YOU’RE DONE!
TIPS:
You can make this plant based or vegetarian by skipping the sausage and adding a couple eggs to each serving, or avocado and your preferred plant based protein.
I like this with a side of fresh greens and an egg.
A FEW NOTES ON EATING TO OPTIMISE HEALTH:
PERSONAL TO EACH OF US
When we’re looking at using food to feel good and reduce inflammation it’s important to understand that it’s fairly personal.
BASIC RULES
There’s some basic rules that apply to all of us of course; like over consuming sugars and processed foods will increase inflammation, but there’s also many layers to it.
With the most important one being paying attention to HOW YOUR BODY REACTS TO WHAT YOU’RE EATING. Not what diet culture or some expert said, but you.
MEAL PREP
Strangely we’ve been told that cooking is a pain in the ass and we shouldn’t have to do it, but that’s just not true. Cooking is essential and while we don’t always have time, it’s absolutely worth MAKING time to do. If you are mad busy, I suggest you plan a day or 2 a week that you can batch cook some staples. Today’s recipe is a great option for that!
WE ALL REACT DIFFERENTLY TO FOOD DEPENDING ON OUR GUT HEALTH AND ON OUR LEVEL OF INFLAMMATION
I like to suggest different options in my recipes because diversity in ingredients is a way to supercharge your microbiome, and also because some people are going to react to certain things differently.
For example; if you’ve just been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, gut dysbiosis or IBS, you might be in such a state of inflammation that things like tomatoes, beans, eggs or potatoes might not be your bestie at the moment!
Or maybe you don’t have a health concern exactly but you’ve been noticing you’re tired all that time or feel a dip in your moods or more anxious…
Maybe you notice that broccoli or grains aren’t sitting well, or garlic or onions. I suggest paying attention to all of these things because the more you can pay attention to your body, the more you can use food to REDUCE inflammation instead of causing it.
I wanted to start with savoury breakfasts because starting your day with something that is full of healthy proteins, plant fibres, and fats will REALLY SET YOU UP FOR THE DAY and support your health in all the best ways possible:
Balances blood sugar, reduce food cravings and create more sustained energy, focus and even mood throughout the day.
It also helps us make better food choices later in the day, all of which can help you lose excess weight and truly feel fantastic!
This will also support diversity in your microbiome and those microbes are what support your overall health. Everything from your brain health to your immune to your hormonal health is impacted by the state of your microbiome,
Whenever we’re cooking we can always be thinking about how to add in more diversity in plants and what we can do to grow a beautiful and diverse garden of tiny microbes that make up our microbiome!
So, I hope you give this a try!
If you do and you enjoy it please make sure you send this to all your friends and family.
Xox,
Gwen
