Some of my favorite recipes are the products of happy accidents. This homemade breakfast sausage is one of them. Here's how it went down: I was planning on making potsticker paleo meatballs, but when I went to the fridge, I realized I'd used up all the cilantro earlier in the week. Whoops. I also realized I bought double the amount of thyme I needed for another recipe. Whoops again.

Anyhoo, that's where I started — 2 lbs of ground pork and a ton of fresh thyme.

What resulted is one of the best recipes on this whole blog. For real. It's quite good.

Best-Best-Best Homemade Breakfast Sausage

paleo, gluten-Free & whole30-approved | serves 3-4

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• zest of 1/2 a lemon
• 1 T of fresh thyme leaves
• 1 T chopped green onions or chives
• 1 tsp of ground sage
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 1 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Stir all the non-meat ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Then mix everything with the ground pork until thoroughly and evenly seasoned.
3. Fry up in a large skillet (you shouldn't need much, if any, additional fat). You want the sausage to brown nicely, and a crowded pan hinders that.

Notes

• Make a double-batch because you will want leftovers. I have lots of ideas for those leftovers below. :)
• It's a fantastic paleo breakfast sausage, but you could use it in plenty of non-breakfasty recipes too. I love sausage, so this blog is filled with them (Sausage Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms, Thanksgiving-In-Your-Mouth, Kale-Sausage Soup, etc.). I even used some of these leftovers in a Thai red curry and it was amazing.
• Fry it up with apples and onions and serve on top of a Dijon and lemon-dressed salad.
• Make a hash with sausage, sweet potatoes and veggies, topped with a fried egg.
• Try the Bomb Paleo Biscuits and Gravy, using this very sausage!
• Try making this into meatballs and serve with mashed cauliflower or potatoes.

Let me know what you think!