Friday, July 5, 2013

Summer Squash & Sausage Stew – Supply and Demand

This simple squash and sausage stew represents my idea of the perfect summer supper. It’s very comforting, relatively fast, wonderfully flavorful, and helps solve a problem that’s existed since neighbors started planting gardens; what to do with all that squash.

If you’ve ever planted squash, you know that there’s no stopping this force of nature once it starts producing. Just a single row of plants will yield enough for you, your immediate family, your extended family, your secret second family, your neighbors, traveling salesmen, and anyone else who happens to cross your path.

Far from simply hiding the humble vegetable, this recipe lets the squash be the star. As long as you follow my pleas to let everything get nice and soft and tender, a very fine bowl of food awaits you and your crusty hunk of bread. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!


Ingredients for 4 portions:
2 tsp olive oil
1 pound Andouille sausage, or other spicy, smoked sausage
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves minced garlic
1 cup crushed tomatoes
3 cups chicken broth, or as needed
2 pounds summer squash, cut in 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, cut in 2-inch chunks
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
freshly ground black pepper and cayenne to taste
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
grated parmesan cheese, optional

View the complete recipe

26 comments:

cookinmom said...

Looks like I can use the last of my garden summer veggies in this. Red potatoes, squash...and why not throw in some flat beans. This will go over great with hubby as he likes(loves)Andouille sausage. He just smoked some so I'll put some in at the end as well! Good timing chef!

Estoy_Listo said...

The Lovely Wife and I watched this together. We both let out an involuntary groan of joy when the potatoes went into the pot.

This is what you do when you reach a certain age.

Another great, essential recipe.

Unknown said...

Looks great as usual. Did you make the walnut bread? I'd love to see your recipe.

Chef John said...

nope, store bought! thanks!

Mommy said...

I could smell your
sausage stew as it
all came together.
My first visit to
a food site and
I subscribed!

Grandma Honey said...

Do you think this would cook well in the crockpot?

Urbane Legend said...

This looks fantastic. My tummy is properly rumbling now. Problem is, I can't get Anouille sausage here in the UK. Can anyone compare it to something that might make a decent substitute? I'm guessing chorizo is too strong-flavoured...

Chef John said...

A crock pot on high maybe.

ChristineDux said...

Chef John,
Perhaps you should now delete the recipe subtitled "Ugly Never Tasted So Good." It's almost the same, and it's kind of off-putting, and it shows up as a suggestion under the new recipe.

cookinmom said...

Made this tonight with smoked sausage and it was sooooo good!! Had a leftover pablano pepper and some mushrooms. I add a few beans, corn and red potato from the garden. OHHH what flavor for such a simple recipe. Everyone licked their plate!! ;0)

Chef John said...

Thanks! It's one of my favorites!

bdwilcox said...

You should be arrested for sopping with unbuttered bread :O

philogaia said...

Interesting you mentioned low carb in this video and not-paleo in the shrimp salad one. It is sort of a testament to your cooking vids that I tend to watch them even when I know I'm not going to make it. Yup, I'm low carb AND Paleo. This stew looks just wonderful. What I often do is add a homeopathic amount of potato to a dish like this just to give a bit of structure and often more meat. I also see the reference to poblano peppers and mushrooms above which sounds fantastic. It really does seem like a very versatile dish. I hope it isn't actually illegal to eat it without the bread. :)

Grandma Honey said...

I made this yesterday and we loved it! But it was way too spicy for us, so we ended up fishing all those sausage pieces out and putting in a sweet chicken sausage. The crockpot on high like you suggested worked beautifully. Glad you told me high, because I was inclined to put it on low and that would have taken forever. I like what cookinmom said about adding the beans and corn....I will do this next time. Oh, and I didn't have any yukons so we used red potatoes instead and they were great. Thank you Chef John. I knew it would be good coming from you, and it was.

Unknown said...

I know it would probably be fine to just leave out the potato. Is there something that could replace it, and freeze well also?
I find potato always gets an odd texture when frozen.

Unknown said...

I made this recipe for dinner today and it was delicious! I love all your recipes, they are easy to follow and ALWAYS come out to be DELICIOUS! I am so glad that I found recipes that I can count on.

I bought 2lbs of squash and 1.5 lbs of potatoes as mentioned by your recipe, but only used 2/3 of the veggies. Maybe it was supposed to be 1.5 potatoes, not lbs?

Thanks and happy birthday!

Roberto said...

I made this stew last night. Here in Italy Andouille sausage is unknown; however, we do have a similar spicy Sicilian sausage which is quite good, perhaps even superior in this recipe. Believe it or not, green bell peppers are very rare, but I had a medium sized jar of roasted red and yellow peppers on hand, so I used that along with two small red chilies (I’ll remember to use only one for guests). I used a pesky zucchini which hid from me in the garden until it grew way too large for most other recopies. Any zucchini grower will know what I mean. The stew did indeed give the illusion of having too little liquid at the beginning. Thanks for the heads-up. I’m putting this in the “keeper” section of my recipe file. It was delicious.

Diana Baranda said...

Hi! Greetings from Mexico City! I really like your recipes, but I´m a vegetarian! So, I usually substitute any meat product with another vegetable, however I would like to know if you could recommend me a brand or specific veggie sausage to do this stew, and for that matter, any other recipe with sausage..?
our helo!
Thank you for y

Aidann said...

Have it simmering now. The aroma is amazing! What a great way to use summer sqaush. Oh YUM, I'm dying to dig in!

Unknown said...

I heart this recipe. The potatoes release the perfect amount of starch to thicken the broth. We used some Louisiana sausage instead of andouille and I added some kale leftover from a previous night's dinner. Yummmm.

Unknown said...

I'll be making this tonight for the second time. You're awesome Chef!

JIMW said...

Made this today. However, used Mexican Chorizo sausage; added corn. For the bread made a Irish soda bread......all came out fantastic. Definitely a keeper

Heidi said...

I made this with Mennonite Farmer's sausage. The Locusts (aka the children) devoured this wonderful dish! My husband said it could be served in a restaurant. What a fantastic recipe! Just the right amount of heat, inexpensive and quick, very flavourful without any other herbs needed to enhance it.

Unknown said...

I left mine on more of a boil than a simmer and consequently overcooked everything, but it still turned out delicious. Also, I needed way more chicken broth than the recipe calls for to keep it in the "soup" genre. Looking forward to making this again.

jeech said...

Just made this and it is awesome! Thanks for your great recipes.

Unknown said...

I didn't have any potatoes, so I added an extra cup of broth and about 3/4 cup of arborio rice and put in a 325 oven for 25 minutes and I think it worked out really well!