One Pan Roasted Squash, Apple, and Sausage Dinner
Fast family-friendly weeknight meals like this simple One Pan Roasted Squash, Apple and Sausage Dinner are so helpful to have on hand!
Table of contents
Why You’ll Love This One-Pan Squash, Apple and Sausage Dinner
At this time of year, sheet pan dinners, one pan meals and all-in-one recipes are my saving grace. Easy doesn’t mean they have to fall flat on flavor.
You all have been giving me lots of feedback that you agree! You loved my Roasted Potatoes with Apples, Sausage, and Maple Mustard Glaze and this One Pan Chicken, Squash and Mushrooms so much I came up with another variation today.
Trust me, you are going to LOVE the taste of this sausage sheet pan dinner! The sweet, savory and tart combination of maple, apple and squash paired with the rich Chicken Apple Sausage is unbeatable!
It is simple to prepare, but just needs a little trick of timing to get everything to perfect tenderness. The butternut squash gets roasted for a little bit, because it takes longer than everything else. After that, add in fresh kale, apples and sliced organic Chicken Apple Sausage to make it a complete meal.
Ingredient Notes
Chicken Apple Sausage
The lightly sweet flavor of chicken apple sausage is a great pairing with the squash, kale and apples. If you cannot find it, sub in sweet Italian chicken sausage or pork sausage. Breakfast sausage links also work and the spices in it are also good with this combo.
Apples
For the best texture look for crisp, sweet apples such as Ginger Gold, Honey Crisp, Mutsu or Gala. Hard apples such as Pink Lady, Jazz and Pinata are too firm to soften well. Softer apples such as Paula Reds or Macintosh are best suited for applesauce as they break down too much and get mushy. Read more about apple varieties for cooking in my apple guide.
Butternut Squash
You’ll need a small butternut squash about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds. You can also substitute cubed raw butternut squash found in the produce section in plastic trays wrapped in clear plastic. (You’ll need about 1 pound of prepared squash.)
Kale
To make this a complete meal we added in shredded fresh kale leaves. Curly, Russian or lacinato work equally well. Remove the ribs and then finely shred the leaves. Add them to a salad spinner to rinse well. Drain and spin dry.
For The Sauce
The sauce is a combination of 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar, 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup and 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard. If you cannot find sherry vinegar, red wine vinegar is a good substitute. And honey can be used in place of the maple.
How to Make This Sheet Pan Squash and Sausage Dinner
Step 1: Preheat oven and make sauce
Preheat oven to 425ºF. Shake vinegar, maple syrup and mustard in a small jar.
Step 2: Season and Roast squash
Meanwhile, toss squash, oil, smoked paprika, salt, nutmeg and pepper in a large bowl to coat. Spread out on a large rimmed baking sheet.
Transfer squash to the oven and roast 10 minutes.
Step 3: Add Kale, Sausage and Apples
Add apples, sausage and kale and toss to coat. Return to the oven and roast, stirring once or twice until the apples are softened and the squash is tender, about 18 to 22 minutes longer. Remove from the oven.
Step 4: Add Sauce and Serve
Drizzle the vinegar mixture over the roasted mixture and toss to coat. Serve immediately.
FAQs and Expert Tips
This sausage dinner is best enjoyed right away, but leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to three days. You can also meal prep this recipe by chopping the ingredients ahead of time. Store the squash separately and keep the sauce in a jar. Refrigerate up to two days.
Baby spinach can be used instead of the kale but only add it in the last minute or two of roasting.
Menu Pairing Ideas
For an easy fall appetizer, you could make this Pumpkin Pie Dip with apple slices.
This is pretty much a one pan meal recipe, but you could serve it with some Simple Skillet Green Beans if you want to fill out the plate with more veggies.
For dessert, you could make Pumpkin Pie with Chocolate Swirl, or if you are following a gluten-free diet you could make Gluten-free Apple Pie.
More Recipes To Try
Friends, I’m in love with the whole one-pan dinner concept! They’re so easy to make and clean up! So check out this Lemon Butter Chicken from Veggie Balance. It’s another awesome one-pan dinner featuring chicken. I also have been loving this sheet pan salmon dinner with Moroccan Spice and this Chicken Sheet Pan dinner with Broccoli and Honey Sriracha Sauce.
Cranberry Sausage Stuffing and this Apple, Cheddar and Sausage Breakfast Strata are two recipes to keep on hand for the holiday season.
For a lower carb dinner try this Spaghetti Squash with Turkey Sausage Ragu.
More Butternut Squash Recipes
At Healthy Seasonal Recipes, we specialize in cooking with fresh veggies and creating weeknight meals. Sign up HERE to get more produce-forward dinner ideas for FREE! If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought! Happy Cooking! ~Katie
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One Pan Roasted Squash, Apple and Sausage Dinner
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 9 cups 1x
Description
Fall means busier schedules, so this one pan roasted squash, apple and sausage dinner is a perfect fast family-friendly weeknight meal!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup, dark or amber
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 medium-small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks (1 1/2 to 2 pounds)
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Freshly ground pepper, to taste
- 3 small apples, cored and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
- 4 links chicken apple sausages, sliced
- 4 cups finely shredded kale
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425ºF. Shake vinegar, maple syrup and mustard in a small jar.
- Meanwhile, toss squash, oil, smoked paprika, salt, nutmeg and pepper in a large bowl to coat. Spread out on a large rimmed baking sheet. Transfer squash to the oven and roast 10 minutes.
- Add apples, sausage and kale and toss to coat. Return to the oven and roast, stirring once or twice until the apples are softened and the squash is tender, about 18 to 22 minutes longer. Remove from the oven.
- Drizzle the vinegar mixture over the roasted mixture and toss to coat. Serve immediately.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Roasted
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 1/4 cups
- Calories: 365
- Sugar: 15 g
- Sodium: 905 mg
- Fat: 13 g
- Saturated Fat: 3 g
- Carbohydrates: 22 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 13 g
My family and I loves this recipe! Thank you. ❤️
Thank you so much for your rating and review Sherry. I appreciate it!
Loved it! I added chunks of red onion and threw in some dried cranberries. The seasonings and the drrssing were perfect flavors. It was soooo good! I’ll be making this again; maybe as a side dish for Thanksgiving.
I found this recipe to be kind of bland written as is, so I added some things and it made this dish really good.
I added about half a red onion into the sausage and kale and apples mixture.
For the dressing, I doubled the recipe, then added about a half teaspoon stone ground mustard, half teaspoon ginger paste, and 2 gloves of garlic.
Your additions sound delish! Thanks for reporting back Krista! I wasn’t sure if you made it the way it was written, then a second time with your changes. Did you use sherry vinegar or another type of vinegar? Sherry is very strong. Much more so than balsamic or cider vinegar. I am curious because I would worry that doubling the vinegar would be bracing.
I was searching for a new recipe made with squash and sausage and came upon this recipe. Made it last evening, and my husband raved about it and suggested that it continues in the fall meal menus. Thank you for this delicious recipe and you can be sure that I will be perusing your site very often for more delicious and easy recipes. I did substitute red wine vinegar for the sherry.
Hi there Onalee. I am glad you found this one. I have a couple other sheet pan meals like this in the archives. Let me know if you end up trying them.
Decided to forego the fish I planned for tonight and will definitely try this. My husband will be surprised.
Used what I had which was ground chicken sweet Italian sausage meat. From freezer so cut into little chunks easily and the anise in the sausage was great with the other flavors. Added a little sliced scallion as well. The vinegar dressing really works here, makes for a slightly sweet sour dish and is an important part of the whole dish! Great way to hide the taste of kale for folks who are not a fan and it is truly a one dish meal.
Thank you for that wonderful review! It is so appreciated. I hope you have a great rest of your week!
As usual, Katie’s recipe did not disappoint! This was delicious!! What a great combination of flavors!
Thank you, Alicia! That is so sweet of you to say. Have a great weekend!
This was so much better than I expected. I’ve never been a fan of apple chicken sausage (but hubby bought it by mistake ….sigh) so I gave this a try. Used the baby spinach I had on hand but otherwise followed the recipe. Baked it a little longer than indicated. I’ll definitely make this again!
I am so glad that it worked out for you and to hear you’ll make it again. Success! Thanks so much!
Delicious! Fast! Easy! Thanks so much!
Just what I’ve been looking for!