Italian Chicken Sausage Over Fennel and Cauliflower: Veggie-Packed, Low Carb, High Protein, and Tasty
Try this shockingly good fennel and cauliflower bowl—tap for a quick tutorial
You would not believe how good this recipe is. You might even get mad about it. But that’s okay, you know now.
The Problem
People don’t know what to do with fennel, which is a shame because fennel is life-changing in the right dish. It’s always a win when paired with citrus, since tangy foods help lighten up the licorice-esque intensity that comes through.
Fennel has lots of health benefits, too. It helps support the natural detoxification pathways in the kidney and liver, it contains prebiotic fiber to feed the gut, and it encourages the production of gastric juices. It contains potassium, which can benefit cognitive function and healthy blood pressure levels, plus iron and histidine, which can help prevent anemia.
The only problem is—there don’t seem to be enough convenient and healthy ways to cook it. Let’s change that! Add this recipe to your rotation, and you and your family will be so much better for it.
Why This Recipe Works
The idea for this recipe came out of a conversation my wife and I had about how to prepare fennel. We wanted to eat more of it, but only knew of a few recipes we liked. We threw together the ideas and tried them out the next day. It was a win.
The core idea for this recipe isn’t new, though. In our travels and study of Italian cooking, the common theme in great recipes is cooking foods that are commonly found together, grown, or produced in the same region, like fennel and cauliflower, sausage and chevre.
So, although it may not be authentic Italian cuisine, it follows the principles of Italian cooking and a Mediterranean diet.
Health Benefits
The high fiber content from the veggies and the lean protein from chicken sausage provide steady energy without blood sugar spikes or crashes—something that typical high-carb, low-protein bowl meals can’t offer. Eating something like this can improve your productivity during the day or help you get better sleep at night. Not to mention that fiber from vegetables helps the large intestine produce GABA, which converts to serotonin, which keeps you relaxed during the day and helps you get restful sleep at night.
Versatility
This recipe is versatile: it fits in perfectly or can be modified with different diets like paleo, keto, vegan/vegetarian, and the autoimmune protocol (AIP). Look for modifications below the recipe.
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Fennel, Sausage, and Goat Cheese over Riced Cauliflower
Ingredients:
1 bulb fennel, sliced thinly
1/2-pound Italian chicken sausage
4 cups riced cauliflower
2 oz. chevre-style goat cheese
2 tbsp avocado oil
1/2 cup broth or water
Unrefined salt (to taste)
1/4 cup Italian parsley, roughly chopped
Instructions:
Sauté the fennel over medium heat in avocado oil. When it begins to caramelize, salt to taste, remove from the pan, and set aside.
Brown the sausage over medium-high heat, breaking it up into small pieces with a wooden spoon and stirring occasionally.
When the sausage starts to brown, add the fennel to the pan, mix, and reduce the heat to low.
In a separate pan, cook the riced cauliflower over medium-high to high heat, stirring constantly. After about 2 minutes, add the broth or water and salt to taste. Let it cook until the liquid has evaporated, stirring occasionally.
Add the cauliflower to 2 large bowls, then the fennel and sausage mixture. Sprinkle the top with goat cheese and parsley. You can leave off the goat cheese and opt for a squeeze of lemon juice if you want to reduce the calories and fat in this recipe.
Serves 2.
Tap to see a quick tutorial
Modifications
This recipe can be modified to suit your dietary needs, so I have written some suggestions below.
Paleo: There’s actually nothing to modify here, just check to make sure your sausage doesn’t have anything in it that goes against the paleo code.
Keto: There isn’t much to change, except you may want to look at how many net carbs you are left with so you can hit your carb goal.
Autoimmune Protocol (AIP): The nightshades in the sausage aren’t autoimmune protocol compliant, so consider making your own sausage using ground chicken, ginger, cinnamon and mace. Mace would be the primary spice you would use instead of pepper. Check out this cookbook for more great AIP hacks.
Plant-based/Vegan: You can sub out the chicken sausage for Beyond Sausage Hot Italian Style links. I use them all the time, and they are fantastic. Check out this video to see how I do it.
Low Lectin: See the AIP suggestions, since low lectin has similarities to the autoimmune protocol. Low lectin is also called the Plant Paradox, after the book.
Mediterranean Diet: Enjoy this dish with something starchy like beans or lentils. This recipe for lentils would be a perfect addition to this dish for a well-balanced and fiber-rich meal, since a typical Mediterranean diet is a little higher in carbohydrates than this dish by itself. So maybe it’s not a single-dish meal. Or maybe it is, if you add a little rice to it.
Total Macros for the Whole Recipe
Calories: ~877 kcal
Carbs: ~42g
Protein: ~58.5g
Fat: ~59g
Per Serving (serves 2)
Calories: ~439 kcal
Carbs: ~21g
Protein: ~29g
Fat: ~29.5g
Other Recipes You Might Like
If you liked this recipe, share it, and then check out these absolute bangers.
Veggie-Packed Red Pepper Pasta (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, and Vegan)
Lower Carb Spanakorizo: The Veggie Dish You Didn’t Know You Needed
You can also find other recipes on this blog here.