Sunday October 25, 2009.
My mom used to make this casserole for Christmas mornings. I always had a love/hate relationship with it- it contained so many things I disliked (even pre-vegan)- eggs, sausage, swiss cheese. But somehow it all came together into something satisfying, even if I did pick out the larger chunks of sausage. I attempted to veganize this casserole last Christmas while visiting my family, and it was a horrible disaster. The flavor was ok, but it may as well have been a soup for how runny it was. It didn’t help that my mom only had one pan of the proper size and she was already using it for the meaty/cheesy version of the casserole. So I used a smaller, deeper pan, and I think it was just too thick to let everything cook properly. Also I think I included way too much tofu and soymilk and should have realized that it just doesn’t congeal in exactly the same way that eggs do when baked.
Anyway, this time I was determined to get it right! Here’s the original recipe:
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1 lb. sausage- cooked and drained
8 slices bread- trimmed- placed in bottom of 13″ x 19″ prepared pan
Mix together in large bowl:
5 eggs, beaten; 1 1/4 cup milk; 3/4 cup half and half; 1 tsp dry mustard; 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Add to egg mixture:
1/2 cup shredded swiss cheese; 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Sprinkle sausage (and sliced mushrooms and/or green peppers if desired) over bread slices. Pour egg/cheese mixture over bread slices. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.
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For the sausage- I used Gimme Lean sausage style. It is very sticky. I try to crumble it up with my fingers but always end up with some larger bits that need to be broken apart in the pan while cooking. You could also use a homemade sausage- I have made ground sausage from homemade seitan before by simply grinding it up in the food processor and adding some black pepper, smoked paprika, and sage. The beauty of vegan sausage- nothing to drain, as the recipe says! I also added some chopped shallots with the sausage.
Next up, the egg mixture. This was the worrisome part, since it was the cause of the failure last time. I decided to use soft tofu instead of silken, and to seriously reduce the liquid used. I also looked online to determine the approximate volume of a medium egg (3 Tablespoons) and measured approximately 15 Tablespoons of tofu, instead of just going “oh what the hell” and throwing the whole thing in like I did previously. I blended the tofu with a little water in my magic bullet blender, and added the dry mustard and (vegan) Worcestershire sauce per the recipe. I also added a splash of tamari, some salt and pepper, smoked spanish paprika, and a generous sprinkle of nutritional yeast. I wasn’t trying to make it taste eggy exactly, since I don’t even like the taste of eggs. I was mainly just trying to get it to not taste so obviously tofu-y. For the cheese, I just used 1 cup of shredded Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet, monterey jack style. I have never yet met a vegan cheddar cheese that didn’t remind me of the nasty cheap orange store brand variety of boxed macaroni and cheese, so I just use mozarella or monterey jack for everything. I haven’t tried the Daiya cheese yet though, and I’ve been hearing good things. But people also seem to like the Teese cheddar cheese, which I think is gross, so there’s no accounting for taste. Anyway, after I added the cheese, the filling seemed a little thick, so I added a little bit of water until it was just a big more liquidy. If I had thought of it at the time I would have added some soymilk instead.
Next everything gets layered in your baking pan- bread, sausage, vegetables (I included both mushrooms and peppers), and finally the tofu/cheese mixture.
I actually did all this assembly the night before and baked it Sunday morning. The recipe says to bake at 350 for one hour, but I think I actually baked mine for less than that. The verdict- it turned out pretty well! I think I could have made the tofu stuff a little wetter, because it’s supposed to soak down into the bread, and that didn’t happen. But the flavor was good, and at least it wasn’t soupy. I think I’d probably add more veggies next time too.
