It’s Austin Beer Week, and this meal celebrates local produce, charcuterie, and craft beer all in one pot! In this easy recipe, bratwurst and chopped onions are browned in a skillet, and then slow cooked in a whole bottle of beer for half an hour. A bunch of dark greens are added in the last 5 minutes of cooking, creating a wholesome, hearty meal with great flavors.
For my version of the dish I paired peppery mizuna from this week’s local box with Independence Brewing Co.’s Sunshine Wheat, but you can use any dark green and beer combination you have on hand. (The picture above is from another iteration of the recipe, in which I used arugula and Real Ale Oktoberfest. Yum.) I adapted this one-dish wonder from Anne Dailey’s recipe for Beer Braised Sausage at SustainableTable.com, a terrific slow food resource for home cooks.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 4 links of any flavor bratwurst; I like Richardson Farms
- 1 large or 2 medium yellow onions, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 bottle wheat beer, such as Independence Freestyle Wheat
- 1 pound dark greens, such as mizuna, mustard greens, spinach or kale
- Fresh ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Slice onions. In a large skillet, saute onions in butter over medium heat for about 10 iinutes. Meanwhile, peel and chop garlic. Add garlic and whole brats to the pan. Brown sausage on all sides.
- Pour in the entire bottle of beer, turn heat to low. Simmer, covered, for 30-45 minutes until beer has thickened some and sausages are cooked through. While sausage is cooking, chop greens. Add greens to the sausage mixture for the last 5 minutes of cooking time; remove the dish from heat once greens are just wilted and bright green.
- Season with fresh ground pepper.
The greens in this dish taste best the same day they’re cooked. However, the braised sausage and onions keep well and make excellent pizza toppings later in the week. I really like to pair them with shaved sweet potatoes or winter squash and goat cheese on homemade pizza dough.
