A sheet-pan dinner, also known as a traybake in other countries, is an easy and time saving option during the week. The NY Times cooking section had a recipe for sheet-pan roasted mushrooms and spinach and I wanted to…
1. add a protein and
2. compare the sheet pan to the air fryer
‘What would happen if I added the spinach for the last few minutes in the air fryer?’ I remembered seeing a recipe for sheet pan sausages and thought ‘What would happen if I added sausages to the mushrooms and spinach in the sheet pan?’
Hmm…It would be a one pan dinner. Something we all could use during the week.
I am going to share this with the Fiesta Friday group party. It’s Fiesta Friday # 371 and I am the co-host with Angie. Come on over to read the other posts with creative recipes, craft or gardening ideas.
So, here it is from start to finish.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. cremini mushrooms (or any combination that looks interesting and wonderful), trimmed and sliced thickly
- 1 small onion, sliced into wedges
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped finely
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed (I only used 1 tablespoon for the air fryer)
- 4 Italian sausages or any kind that are your favorite
- Kosher slat and freshly ground pepper
- 5-6 large handfuls of baby spinach – about 2 6-oz containers
Method:
- In a large bowl toss the mushrooms, onion, garlic with the olive oil until everything is evenly coated
For the oven:
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with foil or parchment paper.
- Spread the mushrooms and onion on the lined pan, nestle the sausages among them. After 10 minutes, turn the sausages over.
- Roast for 20 minutes total.
- Then add the spinach to the sheet pan (if not using sausages you may want to add a bit more oil to coat the spinach), tossing with the mushrooms and roast until wilted, about 5 more minutes total. Turn and toss the spinach and mushrooms after 3 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Note: we found that the sausages added enough additional oil that none was needed.
Mushrooms, onion, and sausages – before
Mushrooms, onion, and sausages – after
For the air fryer:
- Set the air fryer to 370 degrees F for 20 minutes (see my post about air fryer mushrooms here)
- After 15 minutes add the spinach and toss to combine, you may need to add a spritz of olive oil.
- After 3 minutes, toss again.
I didn’t use the sausages in the air fryer although there is no reason they wouldn’t work.
Air fryer spinach and mushrooms
And here are the ones cooked on the sheet pan:
Sheet pan spinach and mushrooms with sausages
Both methods were easy and resulted in a delicious side dish or meal. My husband preferred the sheet pan dinner, he found the mushrooms meatier. I liked the slight crispness and lighter air fryer dinner. Without the sausages this would make a delicious vegetarian/vegan dinner, serve it with polenta or another starch. Leftover mushrooms and spinach made a lovely filling for an omelet.
Air fryer spinach and mushrooms
Sheet pan spinach and mushrooms with sausages
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Very interesting! I don’t have an air fryer, and I’m still not tempted. I’m afraid I’d keep making French fries in it, which I don’t even eat!
I have yet to make French fries. I did try sweet potato fries but they weren’t as crisp as I would have liked.
My air fryer gets so much use! Unlike the oven or stovetop, which is primarily used by me, everybody in the family seems to be less intimidated by the air fryer. Plus it cooks so much faster. One of my mushroom kits is giving me a second harvest, so I’ll be trying your method soon. Thanks for cohosting, Liz. Have a great week!
Mine also gets a lot of use, I especially like that I don’t have to turn on the oven if I am only cooking one thing. Let me know how you like it, I am making this again to serve over polenta for vegetarian guests.
Traybake!!!! That is so much cuter than sheetpan meal Looks delicious and I hate cranking the oven to 425 so will try the air fryer route.
Let me know how you like it, I have made it several times now and it’s been a hit. Even over polenta as a vegetarian meal.
Liz, thank you so much for co-hosting Fiesta Friday # 371. This looks absolutely good. I love this idea.
Liz, we don’t and likely wont have an air fryer. We already have too many appliances. But I have lots of sheet pans and a good convection steam oven so I’m good to go on this. We always have mushrooms about and sausage in the freezer so I see an easy Thursday dinner idea here. I might just toss in some blanched sweet potato wedges too. Thanks for the inspiration…
I don’t think you need an air fryer if you have a convection oven. Let me know how you like this incredibly easy meal.
Sweet potatoes would be a wonderful addition as well.
This sounds like a delicious meal! 🙂
Thank you Nancy, it was easy as well.
I don’t have an air fryer but I think even if I did, I would like the flavor the oven roasting gives.
Lovely! Can’t wait to try!
Thank you Wendy
The sausages are cooked thru? How would it be to cut the sausages into smaller pieces? I am anxious to try this😊
On the sheet pan they are cooked through in that time. Lately I have been cooking sausages in the oven, there is less splatter and mess. You could certainly cut them into smaller pieces, they would cook that much faster. And it would probably depend on what kind of sausages you used. These were smoked sweet Italian pork ones.