Spring Mix Salad with Kielbasa and Pepper-ring Brine Dressing

This is one of my favorite meals right now. One day I had it for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner.


Start with kielbasa. It’s often sold near hot dogs. I like turkey kielbasa, and there’s also a spicy one that’s really good.


I cut a kielbasa into three roughly equal servings. Two of them I put in baggies in the fridge/freezer for another meal.


The third I use. This is an excellent meal to make ostentatiously if you are angry at a male in your household. Even just the sight of the 1/3 kielbasa on the cutting board will cause him to pale.


I first cut it in half down the long way, then put the two halves flat-side down and slice them, so I get little half-circles. I put the half circles into a skillet over medium-high heat, stirring periodically.


Meanwhile I get the lettuce ready. I use an 8-cup bowl. I like the bagged Spring Mix that looks like someone snipped it directly out of a meadow. I fill the bowl about halfway and pack it down a bit. Then I add two spoonfuls of the liquid from a jar of those yellow pepper rings (banana peppers). It would have been nice if I’d had a better jar for this picture, instead of one that was empty of all but a couple of tablespoons of juice, but there it is. Then I fill the bowl the rest of the way, again packing it down a bit, and add two or three more spoonfuls of pepper liquid. It’s good with a few of the actual pepper rings, too, but as you can see I was all out this time.


By now the sausage is getting nice and browned. I like it even a little more cooked than this, but I was hungry and didn’t want to wait. If I use the spicy sausage, it needs to be blotted with paper towels after cooking; but the turkey kind cooks dry.


Put the sausage on top of the lettuce, and it’s ready to eat. Each bite should contain one half-circle of sausage plus a big unwieldy floof of lettuce that will have to be crammed inelegantly into the mouth.

For me, this serves one, but I can imagine it serving two instead, or more if you use it as a side salad.

16 thoughts on “Spring Mix Salad with Kielbasa and Pepper-ring Brine Dressing

  1. Nik-Nak

    I saw the first picture in my Google reader and I was all, “What the hell has she done with his dooey?”

    It makes sense now. Apparently my mind is in the gutter today.

    Reply
  2. Tess

    LOVE IT. I am thinking of this with CHEESE (story of my life).

    I really like those chicken mozzarella sausages too, although they are more expensive than regular kielbasa. With those, I mix a little spaghetti sauce into the pan, and serve that over the lettuce, or even over asparagus (I like the asparagus super soft in that case, or even canned).

    Sausage! The ultimate convenience food!

    Reply
  3. Caitlin

    I saw kielbasa + juice next to each other and almost threw up. Then I came over to read this AND I’M SO GLAD I DID.

    Adding it to my list.

    Reply
  4. Swistle

    Caitlin- Hm. Good point. I wonder if I could call it something more…appetizing. Pepper BRINE doesn’t seem like an improvement, but maybe it is? Or I could call it Spring Mix Salad with Kielbasa and Pepper Dressing?

    Reply
  5. Kelsey

    So I wasn’t convinced when I started reading this (and maybe still not about the pepper juice part) but we may have to revisit that type of meat… I didn’t realize there was a turkey kind. I might like that – the standard type is way too greasy for me!

    Also I laughed out loud at the part about 1/3 of it on a cutting board.

    Reply
  6. velocibadgergirl

    “This is an excellent meal to make ostentatiously if you are angry at a male in your household. Even just the sight of the 1/3 kielbasa on the cutting board will cause him to pale.”

    HAAAAAAAA I’m so glad you said it, because I was thinking it ;)

    Reply
  7. Doxie

    This is perfect with my Atkins diet! I’ve been eating Spring mix greens with a scoop of Ham Salad or Egg Salad for lunch every day….this looks great…I’m not sure about the juice from the pepper rings…what does it taste like?…sweet?, vinegary? I eat no dressing with my ham salad topping! Oh…I should tell you how well my numbers have been since starting Atkins (after reading the “Taubes” book!) Cholesterl went from 149->104! Triglycerides and LDL cut in half! A1C (blood sugar average) went from 7.2->6.8.

    Reply

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