Slow Cooker Sausage and Peppers

The Winter isn’t over yet! That means more yummy and easy meals in the Crock Pot are on the menu. This week we made a ton of slow cooker sausage and peppers and they came out to die for! Want to know the super easy recipe with minimal ingredients? Of course you do!

I’ve made sausage and peppers dozens of times before. We always do it on the stovetop in our big cast iron pan, so that the sliced sausages get crispy on all sides. My mom used to make them in the oven, though I can’t remember exactly how her recipe went (maybe one day I’ll find it). We wanted something even easier this time and decided to try our favorite kitchen appliance for the job. We left the links whole for the slow cooker and the sausage just fell apart as soon as the fork hit it! It was so good! It would be a really great thing to make ahead of time for a family event and it freezes well too. We made a TON of it so we have some frozen meals for days we don’t feel like cooking. Here’s our new go-to recipe!

Ingredients:

• 2 – 2.5 pounds of mild Italian sausage (approx. 12 links)*
• 4 peppers (we used a mix of red, green and yellow to make it super colorful)
• 1 medium red onion
• 1 24oz jar of your favorite pasta sauce
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil for sautéing

*As I said, we made a LOT of sausage so that we could freeze a bunch, so you don’t have to make as much as we did! If you make less, just adjust the remaining ingredients accordingly.

Directions:

• Sautée whole sausage in a little olive oil over medium heat. You aren’t trying to cook them all the way through- the slow cooker will do that for you! You’re just looking for a brown to the outside of them.
• Transfer sausages to slow cooker.
• Wash and cut onion and peppers into strips, removing all seeds. Add to slow cooker.
• Add jar of pasta sauce to rest of ingredients and stir.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Cook on LOW for 6 hours.

Enjoy your slow cooker sausage and peppers on some delicious rolls!

What other slow cooker recipes should I post about? Tell me what you’re craving and I’ll see if I can make it!