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!

Garden Yummy – Creamy Carrot Ginger Soup

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I had sort of forgotten about the carrots in my garden, because it didn’t look like they were doing anything. But, when I went out the other day to remove the greens, I found that I had several pounds of carrots. Today, I decided to whip up some good fall soup with them. I made this recipe in the pressure cooker, but it could easily be made in a regular pan or even crockpot.

Ingredients

  • 6 large carrots, chopped into 1/2 inch slices pieces
  • 1 onion, chopped into medium chunks
  • 1 T fresh ginger, minced
  • 3 cups of vegetable broth or water plus vegetable broth powder
  • 1 T curry powder
  • 2 tsp turmeric
  • 1 14 ounce can coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
  • salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

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Place carrots, onion, ginger, curry powder, turmeric, and broth (or broth powder and water) in pressure cooker. Bring pressure to high and cook for 10 minutes and then turn off cooker and let pressure dissipate.

Remove lid and puree with stick blender, or in food processor if needed. Add coconut milk and nutritional yeast and blend briefly. Return to heat and simmer if needed. Salt and pepper to taste.

We had this with rye bread and it was quite tasty.

Vegan Cheesy Movie Popcorn

As we all gathered around last night to watch the new episode of Doctor Who, I was pretty sure we needed popcorn.  Sure, popcorn with a little salt is good, but I wanted to do something a little more YUMMY for the special event.  So, after a little surfing around and gathering some ideas, I ended up with the following.  The popcorn kernel measurement might be a little off, as I just threw it in the pan from the bag, but I think it’s close.

1/3 c. nutritional yeast
1/2 t. chili powder
2 t. turmeric
sea salt
1 c. popcorn kernels
veg. oil
Olive oil in sprayer (or Pam)

Mix yeast, chili powder, and turmeric in a small bowl.  Heat veg. oil over medium high heat.  After it’s good and hot, add popcorn and swirl to coat.  Continue cooking, gently shaking pan over heat until corn begins to pop.  When it slows to less than 1 pop per 3 seconds, remove from heat and dump into a large bowl.   Spray surface with oil/Pam, shake nut. yeast mix from spoon over surface, add some sea salt.  Gently toss to bring new corn to top.  Continue process until corn is coated enough.  You may well have leftover mix, put that in a bag and save for next time.

Pop in a movie or sit down for your favorite show and enjoy!  You’ll need a napkin.