Recipe: Broccoli and Sausage Casserole

This recipe was featured in the WW Weekly meeting handout recently.

It caught my eye because it called for sausage, cheese and real Italian bread (and a lot of it).

Gave it a whirl and it's very good.



Broccoli and Sausage Casserole

12 oz loaf Italian bread, unsliced
1 lg garlic clove, peeled and smashed
1 lg red onion, cut into thin wedges
4C broccoli florets (you could easily add another 2 cups if you like broccoli)
1t olive oil
12 oz raw turkey sausage, sweet Italian variety (I used 1 package of Trader Joe's Sweet Italian Chicken sausage)
1/2C canned chicken broth
1/2t salt
1/2t pepper
1/4 crushed red pepper flakes
3/4C low-fat, shredded sharp Cheddar cheese


Preheat oven to 400.

Slice bread lengthwise and rub insides with garlic cloves. Place bread, open faced, on one side of a baking sheet; spread onion on other side. Place broccoli on another baking sheet. Coat vegetables and bread with cooking spray. Bake until broccoli is tender, flipping bread over and stirring vegetables halfway through, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove pans from oven and cut bread into 1/2-inch cubes, reduce oven temp to 350.

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet (it's a lot of food, I used a wok). Cook sausage, about 7 to 10 minutes. Add broccoli, onion, bread, broth, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.

Coat a 9-inch sq baking dish with spray and spoon 3 cups broccoli mixture into the dish. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup cheese. Top with remaining broccoli mixture, sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake about 30 minutes.

Slice into 8 pieces and serve. 1 piece = 6 pts.

I thought 8 servings were very small, so I cut the whole thing into quarters and doubled Points. The only drawback on this recipe is the prep takes a little bit of time, but it's worth it. It freezes and reheats wonderfully.