This no-salt Italian sausage has so much flavor that we don’t miss the salt. The recipe provides directions for both Sweet Italian Sausage (with fennel) and Hot Italian Sausage (omitting fennel and increasing the red pepper flakes. ) It can be made with ground pork, beef, or turkey.
- 1 lb low-fat, no sodium added ground pork, beef, or turkey.
- 1 lb no sodium ground pork, beef, or turkey
- 2 tsp fennel (omit for hot Italian Sausage)
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp parsley
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp basil
- 1 tsp paprika
- ½ tsp OR 1 tsp OR 2 tsp crushed red pepper (use ½ tsp for sweet, 1 tsp for slightly hot, or 2 tsp for hot)
- ⅛ tsp oregano
- 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- If you are making sweet Italian sausage: Place the fennel seed in a plastic bag and pound them a few times so they are lightly crushed.
- Put the fennel and all of the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and stir until well mixed.
- Sprinkle the spice mixture all over the ground meat and then mix well until the spices are evenly distributed throughout the meat. Refrigerate for 8-24 hours to let the spices mix into the meat.
- To cook: Form the sausage into thin patties or break into chunks. Cook in a medium-high skillet until the sausage is cooked through with no pink remaining.
Note: before using this recipe, check the label on your ground meat to be sure that it doesn’t have any added sodium. The label of your ground meat should indicate that the sodium per serving is no more than 3%.
Note that sodium percentages depend on which daily reference you use. The estimated 60 mg of sodium per serving implies that one serving of this recipe provides:
– 3% of the U.S. FDA daily reference value for sodium for a 2,000-calorie diet that includes 2,400 mg sodium, or
– 3% of the American Heart Association recommendation of 1,500 mg sodium per day, or
– 6% of the Ménière’s diet recommendation of 1,000 mg sodium per day.
(As is the case with all of the recipes on this web site, the nutrition information provided in this recipe is only an estimate based on nutrition information provided on the packaging of each of the ingredients we used in this recipe and/or on a variety of sources on the web. This information should be regarded as an opinion only, with no guarantees that it is accurate. Obviously, the nutritional information will vary depending on the ingredients and quantities that you use.)
