Low Carb Italian Sausage Salad with Pesto, Tomatoes and Mozzarella (VIDEO)

I found this delicious recipe on www.djfoodie.com – seriously check his site out, he’s got some amazing low-carb recipes and gives complete nutritional breakdowns for all of them. This would suit a low-carb diet and likely Primal diets but not Paleo due to the cheese. As always, ensure the ingredients suit your particular plan before making.

This looked so good I contemplated making it for a while but wasn’t sure I could find all the ingredients here. Italian sausages aren’t common where I live though I did find some gourmet ones in a pack of 6. Once I finally found the Boconccini, I adapted the ingredients to suit the number of sausages and we got three serves out of this rather than four. We loved it – my husband even commented this was a restaurant-quality, gourmet meal. Following the original recipe it comes in at 9.77g of net carbs per serve.

INGREDIENTS:

8 links (680g) cooked italian sausage [I used 6]
1 tbsp (13.5g) olive oil [I didn’t need any]
4 cups (120g) baby spinach, washed and stems removed [I used 3 cups/90g]
1 lb (454g) assorted fresh cherry tomatoes, cut into halves and quarters [I used 350g]
1 lb (454g) fresh Mozzarella, removed from water and cubed (or use Boconccini) [I used 300g]
2/3 cup (159g) basil pesto [I used about half a cup]
2 tbsp (30.5g) lemon juice, freshly squeezed [I used 1.5 Tbsp]
salt and pepper to taste

METHOD:

Because I had to cook my sausages first, there was grease left in the pan and I didn’t need oil. Cut cooked sausages into cubes or bite sized pieces. Preheat medium pan over medium-high heat, add olive oil (if needed) and swirl around the pan. Quickly add the sausage and brown the edges.

While the sausage cooks combine spinach, tomatoes, mozzarella, pesto and lemon juice in a large salad bowl. Once the sausage is browned, add hot sausage to the salad bowl and quickly toss with the rest of the ingredients as well as a bit of salt and pepper.