Spaghetti Squash with Braised Greens and Sausage

There's a new recipe website called Gojee that lets you enter in the ingredients you have on hand, the ingredients you dislike and any ingredients that you crave and populates recipes based on those variables. Given the variability of the items in my produce share every two weeks, this site is great for helping me figure out how to best use those items before they spoil.

Last weekend my share included both kale and swiss chard, two veggies I have a hard time using on their own, but both in one share usually results in one spoiling before I figure out how to use them. Enter Gojee. I visited the site, entered in kale as an ingredient I craved and the first recipe to pop up was for Braised Kale and Spaghetti.

I looked over the recipe and quickly decided to try substituting spaghetti squash for the pasta and using the swiss chard instead of double kale. The results were absolutely delicious! We will definitely be making this again, and I can't wait to see what else I can do with spaghetti squash.

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Spaghetti Squash with Braised Greens and Sausage


Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash
1 bunch kale
1 bunch swiss chard
1 medium yellow onion, minced
8 garlic cloves, sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
3 Italian sausage links (I used chicken sausage)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the spaghetti squash on a baking sheet and bake in the oven whole for an hour.

While the squash is baking, cut the kale and chard leaves from the thick stems and cut into one inch strips. Rinse thoroughly and set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.

 Add the onions and saute until soft, about 6 minutes.

 Add the sliced garlic and cook until fragrant and beginning to brown, about 4 minutes.

 Remove the sausage from the casing and break up into little pieces and brown the sausage.

After the sausage is browned, add the kale and chard to the pot and the final tablespoon of olive oil and toss to coat. The greens will be at the top of the pot to begin, continue to stir until the leaves are wilted.

Cover and cook on medium for 20 minutes, stirring occaisionally. If the contents look dry at any point, add a teaspoon of water.
When the squash is done, remove from the oven, let cool and cut in half. Remove the seeds and return to the oven for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, remove from the oven and begin to scrape the contents out with a fork.

Place the squash in a large bowl and set aside. When the greens are done add the contents of the dutch oven to the squash along with the Parmesan and lemon juice.

Toss to combine and flavor with salt and pepper to taste.

Source: Adapted from Mehan's Kitchen