How to make sausage with WAY less fat

I love sausage, I use it in soups, pasta bakes, stir fries, the list goes on. It has so much flavour from all the spices that add so much to any dish. If you've browsed the sausage section at a grocery store though, you know that you have to be very careful with which one you select. Not only are many full of extra fillers and sugar but they can have more fat than protein in a serving. If you're like me and are looking for sausage as a protein source, this can be super limiting.

Finally one day, I decided that enough was enough, I was going to try and make my own sausages. There was an endless supply of lean ground meats at the grocery store, how hard can it be. Answer, it was SO easy that I have never purchased sausage again since. Now I'll caveat this by saying that I don't try and get the tradition sausage in a casing. Instead, I season ground meat and use that in place of sausage. I promise you, it works even better since you're not having to cut up sausages once they are cooked.

I recommend making up a full batch of the spice mix and using it on an as needed basis but you could easily reduce the recipe and mix it up each time. This particular spice mix is for a spicy Italian sausage so I use it on a lean ground pork but you could easily use ground turkey, ground chicken or a mixture.

Note: this recipe is enough for 4lbs of ground meat.

Ingredients:

- 2 tbsp garlic powder

- 2 tbsp onion powder

- 1 tbsp salt

- 4 tsp Italian seasoning

- 4 tsp parsley

- 2 tsp red pepper flakes (can add more or less depending on spice preference)

- 1 tsp pepper

- 1 tsp star of anise (could use fennel seeds if you prefer)

- 1 tsp smoked paprika (can use regular paprika if you can't find smoked)

Directions:

- Mix spices up and divide into 4, one serving should be used for ~1lb of ground meat. Remaining mix can be stored in an air tight container in the cupboard.

- Add spices to raw ground meat and mix well (I recommend using your hands). I like to let my meat marinade in the spices so I do this in the morning when I'm using it for dinner. You can leave it for less time or none at all if you're in a rush.

- Ground meat is ready to use as a one for one substitute by weight for sausage in any recipe!