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Quinoa, Roasted Summer Vegetable, and Sausage Gratin

A delicious complete summer skillet meal! Quinoa and chicken sausage topped with goat cheese and pesto, then topped with roasted summer squash and tomatoes. So many fresh and healthy flavors! Feel free to get creative switching up the grains and vegetable variety to whatever you have on hand.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups dried quinoa can sub rice, farro, barley, your favorite ancient grains...
  • 1 lb tomatoes, sliced 1/4" thick I like a mixed variety
  • 1 1/2 lbs summer squash (about 3 medium), sliced 1/4" thick
  • 2 tbsp avocado oil (or olive oil)
  • 1 medium sweet yellow onion, quartered and thinly sliced
  • 4 cloves minced garlic
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 5 large fresh chicken sausages
  • 4 oz. goat cheese
  • 1/2 cup shredded parmesan
  • 2/3 recipe toasted walnut pesto (listed below)
  • 3 cups fresh arugula No need to measure. Just 3 handfuls!

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease two rimmed baking sheets. Place tomatoes on one sheet in a single layer. Top with one tbsp of avocado oil and lots of salt and pepper.

    On second sheet, thinly layer squash and onion. Drizzle with 1 tbsp avocado oil and minced garlic. Mix so that garlic and oil are evenly dispersed. Top with a good amount of salt and pepper.

    Put both sheets in oven. Remove the tomatoes after 10 minutes, and the squash after 20 minutes total. You may need to flip the squash halfway if they look like they'll burn. Mine did not need to be flipped.

  2. While the vegetables are roasting in the oven, cook quinoa (or grain of choice) according to package instructions. I prefer to cook mine in chicken broth.

  3. Heat cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, drizzle with avocado oil. Remove fresh sausages from casings and cook until crumbled and thoroughly cooked. Turn off heat.

  4. Add hot quinoa (once thoroughly cooked) to cast iron skillet. Add arugula, and mix everything together. Since the sausage and quinoa are hot, the arugula should begin to wilt.

  5. Press quinoa mixture lightly into pan. Crumble goat cheese and spread in an even layer on top of quinoa. Add a bunch of dollops of pesto.

  6. Layer roasted onions on top of quinoa/goat cheese mixture. Neatly layer roasted squash in a single layer on top of onions. Finally, place all roasted tomatoes on top of squash. (I used a spatula to move the tomatoes since they were quite squishy.) Top with parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. Broil on high approximately 5 minutes until cheese is golden and melted. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn! Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

My cast iron skillet is 13 3/8 inches. If you do not have a cast iron skillet, it can also be baked in CorningWare or a glass casserole dish.

Make it vegetarian: Leave out the chicken and this dish will still be remarkably delicious and satisfying!