AIP apple-sage pork breakfast skillet with white sweet potato and mushrooms

Breakfast is the meal the elimination phase guts hardest, because cereal, toast, and yogurt are gone and most people have nothing ready to put in their place by 7 in the morning. This skillet solves that in one pan, while a pound of ground pork browns alongside everything else: sweet potato, apple, sage, done.

Zinc has a real hand in immune regulation and in the ordinary, background repair of tissue your body is always running, and pork is a genuinely rich place to find it. A savory breakfast built around that is doing real work before 8 a.m., whether or not it feels like it.

Take a moment first for the pig that became this meal, before the pan gets loud, then let the sage and the browning pork fill the kitchen while you finish waking up.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/2 white onion, diced
• 1 medium white sweet potato, diced (about 2 cups)
• 1 green apple, diced
• 1 cup mushrooms, diced
• 2 tbsp fresh sage, minced
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 lb pastured ground pork
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• Green onions, thinly sliced, for garnish

Method

Warm the coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the diced onion and the white sweet potato and cook, stirring now and then, until the sweet potato starts to soften and pick up a little color at the edges, around 8 to 10 minutes. If the pan looks dry, add a splash of water and cover briefly to help the sweet potato steam through.

Push the vegetables to one side and add the ground pork to the open space. Break it apart with your spoon and let it brown, then fold it together with the sweet potato and onion. Stir in the diced apple, mushrooms, minced sage, and sea salt. Keep cooking until the pork is fully cooked through, the mushrooms have released and reabsorbed their liquid, and the apple has softened, another 6 to 8 minutes.

Turn off the heat and stir in the apple cider vinegar; it brightens the whole skillet. Taste and adjust the salt. Scatter the sliced green onions over the top and serve warm.

Air fryer variation

If you would rather crisp the pork separately, you can shape the seasoned ground pork into small patties and air-fry them at about 375F for 8 to 12 minutes, turning once, until cooked through, while you cook the sweet potato, apple, and mushrooms in the skillet. Then combine. Air fryer times vary by model and are untested here, so check the pork is fully done before serving.

Notes

The source recipe is AIP elimination-compliant as written, so no swaps were needed. This dish contains coconut oil. Confirm your ground pork and any garnish are clean-label with no added non-compliant seasonings. Servings are estimated at 2 to 3 because the source does not state a yield.

*Adapted from autoimmunewellness.com*