As fall is approaching, my garden is blowing up with squash, mostly butternut squash. They have taken over almost my entire garden box, leeching onto the tomato plants, crawling along the ledges, invading the cucumber trellis, winding around the bottom of the garden box. They’re everywhere, and man am I trying to come up with ways to use them or store them. I currently have a baking sheet of cut up butternut squash in my freezer so I can bag and seal them over the winter.
There was a restaurant we used to go to for brunch that had a slew of skillet options on their menu. I’m typically not a huge breakfast for breakfast person. But if I can find a skillet that can combine the best of breakfast and lunch, I am all for it. So, this restaurant had a skillet that was on the spicier side, but they didn’t get it quite to the kick I wanted for a breakfast skillet. Now, with all of this butternut squash growing, I decided to make a skillet that met all of the flavor criteria I crave. And, there’s nothing better than breakfast for dinner… I am that kind of person. And what I love about this dish is using vegetarian sausage to make this the ultimate Meatless Monday dinner entree!
So, I’m not gonna lie… the downside to this dish is that there is a lot of prep. Have you noticed how most food bloggers grossly underestimate their “prep” time? So many say 5 minutes or 10 minutes and it takes twice as long. Do they have some sort of magical skills that let’s them dice and chop at the speed of light? Well, I dice and chop at a normal human speed, and I can tell you that this dish does take some time to prep. Peeling potatoes, peeling squash, dicing, chopping, mincing. But, put on some nice music or your favorite podcast (my preference!), pour yourself a glass of wine or lavender mojito 😜 and let the prep time melt away.
After the prep, this comes together easily and really only requires frequent stirring. If you want to cut down on the “total time,” prep the squash and potatoes first. After cooking the sausage and removing it from the skillet, add the squash and potatoes and cover.
Making sure to stir frequently, go back to prepping the rest of your veg… peppers, onions, and garlic and shred your cheese. This will take about 15 minutes off of your “total time.” Once the potatoes have softened, usually after 25 to 30 minutes, season with a nice spicy mix and white miso and stir. White miso! Umami baby. Sultry.
Remove the potatoes from the skillet and set aside. At this point, I had a lot crusted to the bottom of the pan. If you’re okay with that, more power to you, soldier on. For me, I wasn’t, so I took a quick intermission and scrubbed the skillet before continuing with cooking the onions and peppers.
For the jalapeños, I chose not to deseed them because I like the extra kick they give. You can completely deseed both of them, or you could deseed one and not the other to add a little kick. The sweetness of the butternut squash compliments the spiciness of the jalapeños! Now, be warned, if you don’t seed your jalapeños, the air in your kitchen will get spicy! Turn your oven vent on so you don’t sneeze and cough constantly like I did 😂.
Once everything is tender, cook the garlic until fragrant and return the sausage and potato mix to the skillet. Stir then sprinkle the cheese over the top. Cover and let melt.
Cook your eggs! You can make the eggs any way you prefer… scrambled, over easy, over medium, sunny side up? We went with over easy to have yolk to ooze over the hash, and YUM.
Enjoy!
Meatless Monday Spicy Butternut Squash Potato Skillet Hash with Vegetarian Hot Sausage & Eggs
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Breakfast, American, South of the Border, Dinner
- Cuisine: Breakfast, Dinner
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
1½ lbs butternut squash, cut into ½” cubes
1½ lbs potatoes, cut into ½” cubes
1 green pepper, diced into small pieces
1 red pepper, diced into small pieces
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
2 jalapeños, diced ~ seeds removed if desired
6 garlic cloves, minced
14 oz Beyond Meat Hot Italian Plant Based Sausage, removed from casings
8 eggs
8 oz pepper jack cheese, shredded
1 TB cumin
1/2 TB chili powder
1 tsp paprika
¼ cup white miso
salt & pepper
~4 TBs olive oil, divided
1 TB butter
Instructions
Lightly oil a large skillet and heat over a medium flame. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up, until well crumbled and cooked through ~ 6 minutes. Remove from the skillet and set aside.
If needed, add more oil. Add the potatoes and butternut squash and cover with a lid. Stir frequently, turning the cubes over. This takes 20 to 30 minutes to get the potatoes tender. When tender, sprinkle the cumin, chili powder, paprika, and a pinch of salt and pepper over the mixture. Stir to combine. Now add the white miso and stir to combine. Remove the mixture from the skillet and set it aside in a bowl.
Drizzle more oil and add the green pepper, red pepper, onion, and jalapeños to the skillet. Stirring frequently, cook until tender ~ 10 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook an additional minute or 2.
Add back the potatoes, butternut squash, and sausage crumbles. Stir to thoroughly combine. Top with the pepper jack cheese and cover with a lid until melted ~ 3 to 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat another skillet over medium-low to medium heat. Melt 1 TB of butter. Prepare the eggs in batches as desired. We made over easy, cooking about 2 minutes then gently flipping and cooking for about 10 seconds.
Enjoy!
Keywords: Meatless Monday, Hash, Skillet, Potato Hash, Breakfast for Dinner
