eredien: Dancing Dragon (Default)
[personal profile] eredien
I wanted the "classic" mushroom Thanksgiving-type green bean casserole with the crunchy onions on top, but I have no soymilk.

Ingredients:
- 1 lb bag frozen French-cut green beans (for faster cooking)
- 1 1/2 c nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tbsp ground mustard
- 1/2 tbsp paprika (optional)
- 1/2 tbsp chili powder (optional)
- olive oil
- 2 small white boiling onions or 1/2 small regular onion, sliced thinly
- 1-2 lg cloves garlic
- 1 c "pearl" or Israeli couscous (the kind with the larger grains)
- about 1 c dried oyster mushrooms
- 2-3 slices stale bread, cubed into croƻton size (I used some stale whole wheat raisin bread for a sweet flavor)
- salt
- white pepper
- black pepper
- about 3 c vegetable broth (I used low-sodium and it worked out fine)

Equipment: covered casserole dish, medium-sized regular pot with lid, spatula or spoon

Preheat oven to 400 deg. F.

Cover bottom of pot with thin layer of olive oil, salt, white pepper. Turn on heat. When oil is heated up, add garlic. Stir until garlic is fragrant/browning lightly. Add onion. Stir. When onion is transparent and soft, add couscous. Stir to coat in oil. The couscous should become slightly transparent and then slightly tan and smell a little nutty.

Add about half the broth. Stir. Wait a few minutes for the couscous to start to become plump. Then add the spices, black pepper, and more salt and white pepper if you want. Add the mushrooms. Wait for the mushrooms to start absorbing the liquid; you may want to put the lid on the pot for a minute or two at this point.

Add the nutritional yeast, slowly so it doesn't clump up. Stir constantly. The liquid should thicken; if it gets too thick add half the remaining broth. You don't want it too sauce-like just yet, but it shouldn't be thin and watery either. This is a good time to test and add any other spices you might want.

Let the mushrooms and couscous absorb the rest of the liquid already in the pot, and simmer about 2-3 minutes. At this point your sauce should start looking more cheesy, but before it congeals completely turn the heat down.

Coat the inside of the casserole dish lightly with cooking spray. Dump the entire bag of frozen green beans into it.

Pour the warm cheese/mushroom/couscous sauce over the frozen green beans. With a spoon or spatula, make little dents or holes in the green beans for the sauce to flow into. The goal is not to mix it thoroughly, but have pockets of sauce in the beans while still leaving most of the sauce on top to form a kind of crust.

Put the bread cubes on top of the whole thing. Drizzle the remaining broth over the bread cubes. Ideally the bottom of the bread cubes should start absorbing the sauce, and the top of the bread cubes should be drier and form a little crust, kind of like a bread pudding.

Put the lid on the casserole, and pop the whole thing into the oven for 25 m or until browned on top. You can leave the lid off for the last few minutes to get the crust crispier if you want, since leaving the lid on will steam the bread slightly.

This will need salt and pepper to taste when it is out of the oven and heading toward your gaping vegan maw. I didn't want to put too much salt in the recipe as I was making it because you can always add salt later, but can't take it out if you oversalt during cooking.

March 2016

S M T W T F S
  12345
6789101112
13141516 171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Page generated 31/5/25 04:37

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags