Thursday, March 21, 2013

Harvest Vegetable Casserole (vegan)

I found the inspiration for this dish in the "Botanical Interests" seed catalog.  Unfortunately the recipe was not vegan, so I took care of making the adjustments.  Here it is:

Ingredients:
4 cups zucchini, cut into bite sized chunks
1 large red onion, sliced and the pieces separated
4-5 cups (about 2 bunches) Swiss chard, any color, stems removed
Olive Oil
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, or about 1/8 cup dried.  This will depend on your taste.
3 tsp Ener-G egg replacer
6 TBSP water
1 cup vegan cheese substitute like Daiya.  Read the label, make sure it doesn't have cancer causing Casein in it if you use another brand.  I used shredded, but you can shred or crumble it yourself from a block.
1/2 cup vegan Romano cheese substitute.
1 cup sun dried tomatoes, cut into strips or smaller pieces
1 cup fresh bread crumbs (I use Panko but use about 1/2 cup)

Directions:
Heat about 2 tsp olive oil, add the sliced onion.  Caramelize by cooking on low heat and slowly for about 10-15 minutes.  The onions will reach deep, golden brown.  Remove to cool.

Heat another 2 tsp olive oil; saute Swiss chard leaves until just wilted.

Spray or oil (Earth Balance Vegan Margerine or Crisco) a 9 x 13 baking dish.  Put Swiss Chard, squash, and then onion into the pan in layers.  Combine water and egg replacer, mix well, then mix with cheeses and basil.  Spoon this mixture onto the vegetables.  Top the casserole with the sun dried tomatoes and breadcrumbs.

Bakc at 350F for about 40 minutes until the top looks brown and the cheeses melt somewhat.  .

This casserole won't come out of the pan in pieces like casseroles that have a lot of fat and dairy in them.  Just put a portion on the plate and mix it around.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!

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