Turkey Kielbasa Stir Fry

After a long day of work, I am often too drained to be creative when it comes to dinner.  That's why I like to stock the fridge and pantry with some easy things that I can throw together in a flash.  Tonight was one of those nights, luckily we had some Turkey Kielbasa in the refrigerator.  Whenever kielbasa or smoked sausage is on sale I buy a few packages and throw them in the freezer.  Growing up, our Mom would always make Cabbage Soup with either kielbasa or smoked sausage.  It made the house smell so amazing and you would come home to a comforting meal.  Now that they have turkey versions of both of these I definitely stock up with out feeling guilty about the fat.  The taste is very similar to the real thing and I am not just giving you a line.  Try it sometime, you'll be surprised.

However, I digress.  So besides the kielbasa, I pull out a Yukon potato, part of a yellow onion, some mushrooms and sweet peppers.  Be sure that you get your potatoes organic.  It is one of those root vegetables that absorbs everything in the ground and that includes pesticides.  In fact, I have read that farmers will use carrots and potatoes to help clean up fields from pesticide use.  The onion, on the other hand, does not have to be organic as pests don't really care for their taste.  I will have rant on a future post about organics and also will suggest a great book that takes the mystery out of them.  I am off on another tangent so let's get back to the food.  Now you don't have to use all of these vegetables, pick and choose what sounds good to you.  I think carrots, parsnips, garlic or green beans would go great in this dish.  You probably should have the potatoes and kielbasa though.

Scrub that organic potatoes good because you want to leave the skin on for this recipe.  It will give the dish some additional nutrients and flavor that peeled potatoes don't have.  Chop up the potato in bite size pieces, probably one inch cubes will do.  Take a non stick skillet and heat a little canola oil over medium to medium high heat.  You can use olive oil if you would like but be careful of the heat as olive oil will smoke or burn at the higher temperatures where canola does not.  Place the potatoes in the pan and add some salt and pepper.  Cook for about 5 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes and the heat.  While those are cooking, cut up the rest of the vegetables into bite size pieces.  You don't want to dice anything too finely because it will cook too quickly and burn.  The exception to that would be garlic, which you can finely chop if you like.  Just be sure to add the garlic when there are other ingredients in the pan so it won't scorch  and turn bitter.

As the potatoes begin to turn golden, check them with a fork.  Potatoes can look very nice but can still be rather raw in the middle so definitely use the fork test to check if they are done.  If there is still a little resistance to the fork, then you are ready to add the meat.  Turkey kielbasa is already cooked and you are basically just warming it up here.  I like to try and get a little color to it as it will release some more of the flavors into the potatoes.   Cook for about another two to four minutes until you start seeing some delicious color on the kielbasa.

Next, add the onions and vegetables.  You can vary the time of entry depending on the density of the vegetables and how you like them done.  If you like really crispy onions then put them in when you start the potatoes.  If you want your peppers or carrots to be a bit crunchy, add them near the end.  This is the order that I put the food in the pan for this dish; potatoes, kielbasa, onions, mushrooms and sweet peppers.  If you decided to put in celery, carrots or parsnips you would want to add them before the mushrooms.  Green beans and other softer vegetables you would want to add at the same time as the mushrooms or peppers.


Cook everything together until desired tenderness, probably only a few minutes, five minutes max.  Taste to see if you need more salt or pepper, then serve right away.  I had this with some cantaloupe and cottage cheese.  A salad would be nice as well but if you are tired, go with something easy.  

So think ahead when you are doing your grocery shopping and grab some staples to throw in the fridge or freezer for those nights when you are too tired to get creative or want to do a complicated meal.  I will try and post what I consider as some necessary items for you refrigerator, freezer and pantry in a future post.  


Thanks to all of you for reading and sending your comments.  I am really enjoying creating this and hopefully you are having some fun reading it.