Ground turkey and savory spices with a surprise ingredient make moist, flavorful turkey breakfast sausage patties that are frugal, quick to make, and free of questionable and harmful additives. Gluten free, grain free, GAPS friendly, and all natural, these from scratch sausage patties will be a welcome addition to a nourishing breakfast menu.
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Breakfast at our house needs to meet certain requirements. Protein, ease and speed of preparation, flexibility of serving time (in case someone is leaving early and someone else eating late), ingredients we feel good eating, and, or course, taste. These turkey breakfast sausage patties are a staple for us anytime we want to gear up for a productive morning. So pretty much every day.
I have never been much of a fan of turkey. While it seems a bit un-American to admit it, especially Thanksgiving week, I would pick something else pretty much every day. Well, except Thanksgiving. A juicy, freshly roasted turkey is one thing. Ground turkey is quite another. It doesn’t taste good, and it is dry. I hardly bought it for years.
Then I tried a turkey burger recipe that was really good. Oddly, it contained spinach. Sensibly, it also called for a lot of seasonings (to mask the turkey flavor, presumably). It was actually really good. Gradually, I changed the recipe here and there, and I have lost the original, but we have turkey burgers fairly often in the summer now.
How This Recipe Came About
Later, when we were trying to increase our protein at breakfast, and even later, when we started GAPS, I adapted the concept into a turkey breakfast sausage-like patty. Of all things, zucchini grated into the mixture makes it juicy. No, you can’t taste it. That is one thing about zucchini– it has very little flavor. Removing the peel first forestalls any objections to little green flecks in breakfast.
You must include a lot of seasoning to make turkey taste good. I like to toast the fennel seeds for a couple of minutes before mixing it all up. They gain flavor in the few minutes it takes to toast them in the skillet I will use to cook the meat.
The rest comes together quickly, and makes enough for multiple breakfasts. Usually, I double the quantities to make enough for a week and put some in the freezer for later and the rest in the refrigerator to prepare freshly each morning.
Alternatively, you could cook all the patties on one day and have them cooked and ready to go each morning.
Thirdly, you could freeze patties on a parchment lined sheet, then transfer them to a storage container and cook what you want from the frozen state, like a lot of grocery store options. I don’t do this, as it takes a lot more effort!
Unlike most of the grocery store varieties, there are no ingredients in these that are hard to identify, such as colors, preservatives, or “natural flavor”. (Natural flavor can mean a lot of things, many of which aren’t remotely natural.)
Additionally, there isn’t even a hint of sugar, which is important if you are following a protocol like GAPS or Whole 30. The packaged sausages at the store that are made of better ingredients tend to cost quite a bit. These don’t, and you can tweak the seasonings to your preferences.
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How to Make Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties
Toast the fennel seeds by heating a skillet, then spreading them out and stirring now and then until they release their fragrance. Remove them and put them in the bowl to mix into the ground turkey. Set the skillet back on the stove and melt some fat for cooking.
Next, peel and grate one zucchini and one onion. Either a box grater or a food processor will work well.
Then measure all the seasonings, including the toasted fennel seeds, and mix them with the turkey and the zucchini and onion.
Now form into patties of desired size and cook for a few minutes on each side until browned and cooked through. If you want to speed up the cooking, cover with a lid!
Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties
Ingredients
- 2 1/2-3 lbs ground turkey
- 1 zucchini
- 1/2 onion
- 1 T onion powder
- 1 T garlic powder
- 1 T fennel seeds
- 1 T good quality salt
- 1 tsp. dried rosemary
- 1 tsp dried sage
- 1 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- preferred fat for frying
Instructions
- Peel and grate the zucchini and onion. Either a box grater or a food processor will work fine.
- (Optionally, toast the fennel seeds in a skillet over medium heat for a few minutes to bring our the flavor.)
- Mix the turkey, grated onion and zucchini, and all seasonings thoroughly.
- Heat a tablespoon or two of fat in a skillet over medium heat until sizzling hot. (It is worth the time to get it very hot, as your mixture will stick much less if you do!) Shape your turkey mixture into patties and brown them for a few minutes with a cover over the pan (to speed the cooking).
- Turn when the bottoms are brown and the tops are no longer pink. When cooked through, remove to a plate.
- Either continue cooking all your turkey patties now, or package the rest to store in the refrigerator or freezer until you need it. (I usually put some uncooked mixture in the refrigerator for the next couple of days and freeze what is left, often doubling the recipe.)
Make Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties Your Way!
- Substitute ground pork or chicken. (I like chicken best, actually.)
- Alter the spice quantities to taste. If you aren’t sure, mix everything up and cook a bite-sized portion to try. These aren’t very spicy to suit my spice-phobic family member. Doubling the pepper would make them spicier, or you could try 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes if you like a bit more heat, and go up from there.
- Bonus points if you use bacon grease for frying! Bacon grease really adds to the flavor.
- If you are trying to add more quality animal fat to your diet, you can mix some into the mixture prior to cooking. If you are trying to limit your fat, you don’t really need it because the zucchini adds moisture.
That’s it! You are on your way to a quick batch of Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties to start your day right.
For a side, add some squash pancakes:
Need a different option? Try chicken apple sausage patties.
For extra flavor, add a teaspoon of smoked paprika!
Splendid idea! I agree, turkey burgers don’t excite me either, but your recipe sounds like it might fix that! Love the ingredients!
Turkey needs a lot of help, in my opinion!