Fiber = Pears + Potato

Don’t force down prune juice or go on a watermelon diet to ease digestion. Let’s leave those old wives’ tales in mists of time and eat delicious ingredients right from our nearby farms and orchards, incorporating them in a delicious hash to boot.

I’ve turned to hashes as my go-to brunch plate. Whether I’m at a restaurant with friends or using up an assortment of fridge and pantry items for a homemade jumble of chopped up ingredients. I learned from the menu at Founder Farmers to add a little savory meat. By taking a leaf out of their book, my hashes are even more flavorful and savory, with that added protein we need in the morning. I especially like to add fruit. I don’t eat enough fruit, especially in the winter, as I’m craving hot food. Now I can heat up soft fruit and add crunchy things, too, for a plate that looks like an homage to autumn.

I’m nuts for pears and their soothing effect on our tummies. Since pears have a low acid level, we can easily digest this fruit. Keep the skin on the pear and eat one whole fruit to attain about 20% of your recommended daily fiber need. And another benefit: the pectin, which is water soluble fiber, is diuretic and has a mild laxative effect. Win, win, win! Leaving the skin on potatoes also adds more fiber to our diet. So pears, meet potatoes! Potatoes have both soluble and insoluble fiber, helping your gut feel full as pears do and helping with the passage of food through your digestive system. Besides, a good hash must have potatoes (and pork, in my book)!

Autumn Sausage Hash

1/8 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup homemade stock or store-bought broth
1 cardamom seed (optional)
2 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 lb sausage (preferably home- or store-made), sliced into 1/2-inch chunks
1/2 lb potatoes, roughly chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 whole pear, roughly chopped
1/4 cup Vietnamese sweet chili sauce (such as from Mae Ploy), plus more if desired

Toast pine nuts: in a small frying pan, add pine nuts and toast over medium-low heat. Shake pan or stir around nuts every minute or so in order to toast nuts evenly. Once brown and you can smell them toasting (about 3-5 minutes), remove from pan and cool in a small bowl.
In a large frying pan, add stock, cardamom seed, cloves, and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, then return to medium heat. Add sausage and cook until just cooked through, about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add potatoes and red onion, cooking for 10 minutes. Add green pepper, cooking for another 5 minutes. Add pear and toasted pine nuts, cooking for 5 minutes longer. Stir occasionally throughout cooking. Always season after adding any ingredients, adding salt and pepper (only about 1/8 teaspoon pepper and 1/4 teaspoon salt each time, for about a total of about 1/2 teaspoon pepper and 1 teaspoon salt total, or per your tastes).
Remove from heat and add sweet chili sauce. Stir to mix well. Serve immediately.

I used breakfast sausage as that just makes sense for breakfast (duh), and a lamb and meat farm shop nearby makes crazy good links (http://www.foxhollowfarm.org). Feel free to use any type of pear, bell peppers, potatoes, or stock, as well.

Dividing this recipe into four servings gives each serving about 10% of your recommended daily fiber need just from the pears and potatoes. The bell pepper and nuts add even more! It’s a fiber bonanza on your plate, basically. Bon ap, to fiber!

Photo courtesy of Flickr member bmann; “Pears on the water”