Sausage and Hash Brown Casserole with Baby Spinach made with BAKED not FRIED potato hash browns. A delicious breakfast recipe perfect for the weekend! Make this with store-bought hash brown mix, or grate your own potatoes.
Look at all the oozy flavors!
It smells so good in my kitchen right now. I am making this Sausage Hash Brown Spinach Casserole. It is made out of everything that is good in the world: potatoes, sausage, eggs, cheese. Oh, and some spinach.
This casserole can be a breakfast or a dinner dish. I am generally too hungry and sleepy to pull off something like this for breakfast (even on a weekend), so this is definitely a dinner dish in my house. Of course, you can do steps 1-8 and assemble the casserole the night before, and then add the eggs and bake in the morning. Either way, this is worth making!
A healthier take on the Sausage Hash Brown Casserole:
You you think that a sausage and hash brown casserole can't possibly part of a healthy meal. But this recipe is a healthier take on this delicious breakfast recipe. For starters, you're using freshly grated potatoes (or store-bought hash brown mix, which is just grated potatoes that are NOT deep fried). You are not frying the potatoes, but simply baking them to make them a delicious crust for this casserole.
When you cook the sausage meat, you don't need to add any extra fat, because the fat from the sausage is enough to cook the onions and sausage without burning them.
And there is a whole 4 cups of spinach in this recipe! The spinach cooks down so you barely notice it, but each serving of this casserole has a nice portion of greens.
You can also serve this casserole with a side salad, some sauteed kale or spinach, or with fresh avocado. So while it is a hearty and comforting casserole, it can absolutely be part of a healthy diet.
How to make this Sausage Hash Brown Casserole:
You start with grating some potatoes and straining the extra liquid out of them to make the hash brown mixture. Then you par-bake the hash brown potatoes (that's a fancy way of saying bake them separately before cooking the whole casserole).
While that is happening, you cook the sausage, onion, and add some spinach to it.
To assemble the casserole, you layer the cooked sausage mixture on top of the hash browns. Then you add some cheese, and crack a few eggs on the top. Cook the whole casserole for 10-15 minutes, or until the eggs are cooked to your liking.
You can also
You can also assemble the casserole in advance, just don't add the eggs yet. Then in the morning when you are ready to make breakfast, just preheat the oven, crack the eggs into the casserole, and bake for 15-20 minutes until the casserole is heated through and the eggs are cooked to your liking.
Sausage Egg Hash Brown Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 lb potatoes - (2-3 medium potatoes, or 2 cups thawed hash browns)
- 1 teaspoon salt - , or more to taste
- Non-stick spray
- 1 lb Italian sausage - , about 4-6 sausages, removed from casings
- 1 yellow onion - , diced
- 2 cups baby spinach
- ½ cup grated cheddar cheese
- 6 eggs
- black pepper - , to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a large baking dish with non-stick spray.
- Shred the potatoes using a grater, and add ½ teaspoon salt to the potatoes. Drain the shredded potatoes by placing them in a colander in the sink. You might need to squeeze some of the water out by hand.
- Spread the shredded potatoes (or thawed hash browned potatoes) on the bottom of the baking dish. Use 2-3 sheets of paper towels to absorb extra moisture by dabbing the potatoes. Bake the potatoes for 15 minutes, then remove the dish from the oven. It is OK if the potatoes are not fully cooked yet.
- Meanwhile, heat your frying pan and add the sausage meat and onion slices to the pan. Cook stirring frequently for 10 minutes, breaking up the sausages into smaller chunks with a spatula. Add the baby spinach, stir, and cook for another 2 minutes until the spinach wilts.
- Layer the sausage mixture on top of the potatoes. Be careful not to touch the hot baking dish! Layer the shredded cheese over the sausage. Make 6 wells on top of the cheese, and carefully crack an egg into each well. Sprinkle the eggs with salt and pepper.
- Bake for 15 minutes until the egg whites are set and the yolks are still runny, or longer if you prefer. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Serve with a side salad, fresh avocado, or buttered toast.
Nutrition
The nutritional information displayed is an estimate and not to be used as dietary or nutritional advice. Consult a nutritionist or dietician for nutritional info based on the exact ingredients you use.