Vegan Breakfast Casserole

Photo: Dave Irving

This is one of the most searched for posts on The VeganAsana, so it is always good for a repost, and we had it last night for dinner!

It’s an easy recipe, but it does take about 2 hours to cook. I  use a half-steamer disposable foil tray for cooking this, just because it is a little hard to clean out of a pan.

If you want to be extra, you can use fresh potatoes, shredded, but we like it with tater tots. We are just classy like that.

Breakfast Casserole

2 blocks firm or extra firm tofu, drained
¼ cup unsweetened soy milk
1 package of your favorite faux sausage (this time I used Lightlife)
1 package frozen hash browns or tater tots
1 medium onion, diced
Other veggies to taste: red pepper, spinach, kale, mushrooms
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin
2 tsp black salt
1 tsp smoked paprika
Daiya or other cheese (yesterday, I used Follow Your Heart)

Depending on the form of your fauxsage, you may want to fry it first. Most of the “patties” don’t require that.

Place tofu in food processor or blender with the soy milk. Pulse until fully broken up and liquidy. You actually *can* stop earlier if you want your tofu to be more chunky and to sit on top of the potatoes. We like ours to sink between the tater tots, but that does require additional baking time to wait on it to set up.

Fold in nutritional yeast, turmeric, cumin, and salt.

If you are using a standard baking dish, cover the bottom with parchment paper. Add veggies (except spinach/kale – that you would place in a layer on top of the tofu) to hash browns or tater tots. Add tofu mixture and spread evenly. Sprinkle on or place sausage. Cover with vegan cheese.

Cover with foil and cook at 375* for an hour. Remove foil and continue cooking until heated through and the tofu has mostly firm back up.

Remove from oven and allow to settle (covered) for 10-15 minutes before serving. Serve with hot sauce, if desired.

YUMMY!

Sourdough Strawberry Shortcakes

Good morning! I hope you had a healthy breakfast today. I’m not going to tell you that I did – exactly – but it was delicious. Last night for dessert, I made sourdough strawberry shortcakes. I didn’t have any then, so I gave myself permission for a shortcake breakfast. So yummy!

There are many ways to do the cake/bread part of shortcakes, but I grew up having them as biscuits, so that’s what I made. Specifically, I used this Flaky Sourdough Biscuit recipe. The only change that I made was a little sugar on top before baking. They came out lovely!

While the biscuits were cooking, I made the strawberry topping. I made it with a wee bit of rhubarb, which you can’t taste much. It just gives a hint of something to the strawberry. If you like rhubarb (I love it, but not everyone in the house does), you can certainly add more here!

Ingredients
4 cups strawberries, cleaned and sliced
1-2 large rhubarb stalks, cleaned and chopped
2 cups water
4 cups sugar

Process
– Add water and sugar to a pan, whisk, and cook over low-medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
– Add rhubarb and continue to cook until the rhubarb breaks up to the degree you want (if you like rhubarb, just get it tender; if you are not a fan, keep going until it pretty much dissolves when you stir it).
– When complete, remove from heat and allow to cool.
– Once cool, if you don’t really like rhubarb much, optionally use an immersion mixer to fully incorporate it into the sauce.
– Add berries and chill an hour or until you are ready to serve!

Vegan Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

I do love a good cinnamon roll! These are a nice combination of slightly tart breading and sweet cinnamon.

Ingredients

Rolls

  • 3 2/3 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup vegan butter
  • 1 cup non-dairy milk, warmed slightly
  • 1/2 cup active sourdough starter
  • 1/4 cup sugar

Cinnamon Filling

  • 1/4 cup vegan butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp cinnamon

Icing

  • 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
  • 1-2 tbsp non-dairy milk
  • 1 tsp maple syrup

Process

  • Mix flour and butter with hand or mixer until a sandy consistency.
  • Add remaining dough ingredients and mix (if using a stand mixer, use dough hook). Mix with dough hook for about 5 minutes or mix and knead for 10 minutes until it comes together into a soft ball. Try not to add more flour, but if you have to, do so just a tablespoon at a time.
  • Cover with a towel or lid (be sure there is room for it to rise) and set in a warm spot overnight or until it doubles.
  • The next morning or after dough has risen, preheat oven to 350°F.
  • To make the cinnamon filling, melt the butter and mix in the other ingredients.
  • Lightly coat counter or cutting board and roll out dough into a rectangle (about ¼ to ⅓ inch thick) and spread the cinnamon evenly to all edges.
  • From the long edge, roll the dough into a “log.”
  • Use a sharp knife to cut your rolls about ¾-1 inch in height.
  • Place the rolls in a lined baking pan. separated to allow for spreading.
  • Bake for 20 minutes or until they are lightly golden.
  • Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
  • While the rolls are cooling, mix the icing ingredients until smooth and then drizzle over cooled rolls.