Apple and sausage stir-fry: a real breakfast that asks almost nothing of you

Making your own sausage is not what most mornings ask of you, and if the idea of mixing raw pork with your hands before coffee sounds like too much, this is still worth the 5 extra minutes it takes. One bowl, a handful of spices worked in by hand, and you have a sausage with none of the store-bought blends that carry nightshade and seed spices where you don't expect them. Everything after that is 1 pan and about 20 minutes.

Ground pork is a source of zinc, a mineral your immune system leans on when it is working hard. The 8 cups of spinach that wilt down at the end are their own source of magnesium, tied to a calmer nervous system and hundreds of everyday reactions in the body. Fennel, apple, and cherries round out the plate with color and a sweetness that is not the point, just a welcome one.

Source the pork from an animal raised well if that choice is open to you, this is the meal it goes into, browned and worked with your hands from the start. Give the plate a few seconds of arranging before you sit down: the green of the wilted spinach against dark cherries and browned pork, gold at the edges. A little color changes how a meal lands, even on a rushed morning.

Ingredients

For the breakfast sausage:

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 tsp ground sage (start here and adjust)
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 3/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

For the stir-fry:

• 1 to 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
• 2 green apples, chopped
• 1 cup pitted cherries (fresh, or thawed and drained frozen, or dried)
• 8 cups fresh spinach

Method

Put the ground pork in a bowl and work in the sage, ginger, rosemary, thyme, salt, garlic powder, and cinnamon with your hands until the seasoning is evenly distributed. This is your quick homemade breakfast sausage, and seasoning it yourself is how you keep the nightshade and seed spices out.

Warm the coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the seasoned pork and the sliced fennel together, breaking the meat apart as it cooks, until the pork has browned and the fennel has softened, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the chopped apple and the cherries and cook a few minutes more, until the pork is fully cooked through and the fruit has warmed and softened.

Add the spinach in handfuls and fold it through until it wilts down, about 2 minutes. Taste, adjust the salt, and serve warm.

If you cannot find fennel, the source suggests onion, apple, or pear in its place. Dried or thawed cherries stand in for fresh without trouble.

*Adapted from acleanplate.com*

*Lower-sugar note: the sugar here is the apples, not added sweetener. For a lighter serving, use a smaller portion, or blend in a splash of water or coconut milk to stretch the batch so each serving carries less.*