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!

Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

I had a bad cupcake day yesterday, so I had to redeem myself with these! We had made the frosting earlier, so it didn’t get quite as smooth as I wanted here, but it tastes good – just isn’t as pretty in photos.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

  • 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon cherry extract or cherry juice
  • 1 teaspoon vinegar
  • 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 cup cold water
  • 1/4 cup chocolate pieces or chips
  • 1/4 cup dried cherries chopped

In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa, soda and salt. Make three wells in the flour mixture. In one put vanilla; in another the vinegar, and in the third the oil. Pour the cold water over the mixture and stir until moistened. Add the chocolate chips and cherries and gently mix. Spoon into cupcake tins (fill 1/2 to 2/3 full).  Bake at 350°F. oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in a cupcake comes out clean.  Allow to cool before frosting.

Frosting/Icing

  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • ¼ cup vegan butter, softened
  • 3 tbsp chocolate syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon cherry juice or extract
  • 1+ tbsp soy milk

Cream sugar and butter. Add syrup and extract. Add soy milk if necessary to reach desired consistency.

Sourdough Dinner Rolls

After making some spinach dip, I decided that I needed bread or rolls to serve with it. One of the young people requested rolls that were a little sweeter and lighter than a sourdough loaf. I started with this recipe from Holy Cow Vegan and adjusted from there.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sourdough starter
  • 5 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup aquafaba
  • 1 1/2
  • 3 tsp salt
  • 5 tbsp white sugar 
  • 3/4 cup olive or vegetable oil
  • 1 cup non-dairy milk

Process

Combine all ingredients except milk. Mix with dough hook, adding milk *just* until the dough comes together in a soft ball. Do not over knead.

Place dough ball into an oiled bowl to rise. Cover tightly and place somewhere warm for 4 hours. The dough should double. 

Turn the light on in your oven. Knead the dough briefly and divide into 16 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and place in 2, parchment-lined baking pans, keeping the rolls slightly apart from each other and from the sides.

Place in the unheated oven with the light still on for 2.5 hours. At that point, they should have risen somewhat in again and will be touching. If not, allow a little more time.

Remove rolls from oven and preheat to 350*. Bake for approximately 30 minutes until golden on top and about 185* internal temperature.

After the rolls cool for 15 minutes in the pan, remove to a baking rack and continue to cool.