Creamy Root Veggie & Sausage Stew

I'm planning to get to the family recipes soon, I promise.  So far, I've mostly posted my own invented recipes.  Today is no exception.  We had a food celebration at work today.  We do that a lot.  We're good at it!  Today was the Hanover Concrete Chef, a little play on Iron Chef paver style.  The secret ingredients were cranberries for the appetizer, root vegetables for the main course and bread for the dessert.

I chose to make a Main Course.  As usual, I couldn't find a recipe that I liked on it's own, so I read several and made my own inspired dish! Creamy Root Veggie & Sausage and Chicken Stew.  I'm thinking of ditching the chicken in this recipe; the sausage is wonderful and adding chicken just seems unnecessary.  Plus, it makes the title much too long!

It's heavenly sausage, root veggies, kale (love)...oh and cream!  There's Cream!  Our house smelled like scary boiled turnips, but this was a big hit in my book.  A co-worker today gave a vote of confidence when he said that he liked "the one with the weeds."  That'd be my kale (love)!

Let's talk about rutabaga, aka the waxed turnip.  This thing is the size of a softball, hard as a rock, and pumpkin colored on the inside.  I struggled to peel the thing and when I couldn't cut through it, I tossed the whole thing in the pot.  After about 15 minutes, I could cut into it.  I still couldn't cut through the middle.  It may or may not have a core, so I cut around it and moved on.  Bizarre food.  On the left is a rutabaga.  It really is waxy.  Turnips are on the right.

 So, there's my softball sized rutabaga of steel! 

p.s.  Make extra sausage because it is too good to put it all into the soup.  My husband is a picky eater so he was having no parts of this mess, but he loves the sausage.  I can make dinner and soup for work with the same ingredient!  Perfect!

2 lb Sweet Italian Sausage

Ground Cayenne Pepper

2 Large Chicken Breasts

Salt & Pepper

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Tbsp Butter

1 Medium Onion, diced

5 or 6 Cloves Garlic

2 tsp Chopped Fresh Rosemary

2 1/2 Lbs Yukon Gold Potato, peeled &diced

1 Large (softball sized) Rutabaga, peeled& diced

2 Medium Turnips, peeled & diced

3 Parsnips, peeled & diced

4 Medium Carrots,diced

1 ½ Cartons Swanson Chicken Stock (regular orunsalted)

1 ½ Cartons Water (equal parts as chickenstock)

6 Cups Kale Greens,remove the large fibrous stalks

1 ½ Cups Heavy Whipping Cream

Pre-heat oven to 375*.Cut the sausage down the center, almost in half (long ways).  Spread 2 or 3 cloves of minced garlic intothe cut part of the sausage.  Sprinklewith cayenne pepper.  Spray with Pamolive oil spray.  Bake for 30 minutes.

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces,sprinkle with salt and pepper.  In alarge stock pot, heat oil and butter over medium heat. Sauté the onion for 5minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken and sauté until slightly browned.  Add the remaining cloves of minced garlic androsemary; cook 1 minute.  Add the stockand water.  Rutabaga, turnips, parsnipsand carrots.  Bring to a simmer.  Cook for 20 minutes.  Remove the sausage from the casings and cutor break into small pieces (if doing this by hand, consider gloves for the cayenne).  Add the potatoes, cook for another 20 minutesor until all vegetables are tender.  Using a hand-masher, mash the contents several times to thickenthe broth.  Add the Kale greens that havebeen torn into bite sized pieces.  Stirin the heavy cream.