Vegan MoFo Day 28: Green Bean Casserole

Green Bean Casserole is one of those quintessential Thanksgiving foods that I had never eaten in my life until last year's Pre-Thanksgiving Vegan Thanksgiving Potluck. In my family, you didn't cover vegetables in "sauces" or ever use cream of anything soup for anything. The exception to this, somehow, was creamed spinach... but I'm just going to chalk that up to an anomaly. Sure we ate green beans, sauteed, with butter or green beans with slivered almonds, but never, never, with a cream sauce and fried onions in a can. Which leads to the second reason I'd never eaten this -- the onion thing. I think it's well known by now that I don't *do* onions. It's not that I dislike them, but they have a burning searing hatred for my guts... literally, so I don't eat them. Third -- Green Bean Casserole always seems to be made with canned green beans. I don't do canned vegetables either, with the exception of corn, and tomatoes, and legume type beans (i.e. chickpeas, kidney beans). I don't like squishy veggies. After two years of potlucks eating green beans with yummy mushroom sauce I decided I'd give it a go myself this year. After perusing lots of omni recipes, I decided I'd just wing it, and here's what I came up with, in all its delicious glory!



Green Bean Casserole
1 1/2 lbs FRESH green beans, ends snapped off, cut into 1" pieces
1/4 cup diced shallots
10 oz crimini (baby bella) mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp all purpose flour
2 cups Creamy Portabello Mushroom Soup
1/2 cup non-dairy cream cheese (I used Follow Your Heart brand because I can't find Tofutti Nonhydrogenated here anymore!)
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 can French Fried Onions

1. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat and add the shallots and mushrooms. Sautee until the mushrooms are all shrunk down and the shallots are soft and translucent.

2. Add the green beans to the skillet and continue to sautee until they are just fork tender. Keep in mind they will also be baked and you don't want soggy beans! Add a little of the mushroom soup if the pan needs some moisture.

3. Add the 2 tbsp of flour and sautee for a minute to get rid of the raw flour taste.

4. Add the soup and cream cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and stir often to dissolve all the cream cheese. Allow it to thicken slightly (just needs a few minutes) and remove from heat.

5. Pour your green bean gravy mixture into your baking pan of choice. Top with French Fried Onions, and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

So now you may be wondering "But what about the onions?!? You don't eat ONIONS!!" This is true. I portioned out a small amount for myself in a single serve baking dish and topped it with Panko. Problem solved :)

Noodle Kaboodle!!

I recently got into Family Guy. Prior to just recently, I just didn't get it. It was too gross, and is the baby really talking? Do people understand him? Why is the dog walking upright? I had to give up on my reality perspective and I found out that while it still too gross sometimes, it is pretty damn funny. This dish is my Family Guy tribute. I have no recollection of what else is happening in the episode, but the family is sitting down to dinner and Brian compliments Lois' cooking and she replies something like "Oh Brian, it's just Noodle Kaboodle!!" Other than mentioning the potato chip topping, I have no idea what is in a Noodle Kaboodle -- nonetheless, I decided to make it happen. And so, here is my very own version of noodle kaboodle. It's fairly simple tasting and sort of reminiscent of a boxed noodleroni type dinner. It doesn't have a potato chip topping (you know what? I just can't. Feel free to though if you want!), but it's still a creamy and delicious comfort food!

Noodle Kaboodle
8 oz eggless egg noodles
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium carrots, diced
1 large or 2 small broccoli crowns, cut into small bite-sized pieces
1 cup frozen peas
8 oz turkey style seitan, cut into cubes *
1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 30 minutes in hot water
12 oz soft silken tofu (1 box mori nu)
1 1/2 cups plain soymilk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
3 tbsp all purpose flour
3 tbsp canola oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
Plain Breadcrumbs (ok, or crushed potato chips) for topping

1. Prepare the egg-less noodles according to package directions.

2. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and sautee the broccoli and carrots until tender crisp. Add the frozen peas and stir to heat through.

3. In a blender or food processor, puree the (drained) cashews and the silken tofu together until smooth. Set aside.

4. In a large skillet or medium pot, heat the 3 tbsp of canola oil, then add the 3 tbsp flour. Whisk together over low heat until light brown and toasty smelling (for those in the know, make a roux). Slowly whisk in the soymilk. Most of it will thicken up right away. Add the tofu mixture, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, poultry seasoning, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste.

5. Mix everything together and pour it into a 9X13" baking dish. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs (yes, yes, or potato chips) and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 - 20 minutes until the breadcrumbs are toasty.

Naked Kaboodle!! Pre-bread crumbs. You get a better view of the veggies and seitan and nice creamy sauce!

*I used 1/2 a loaf of Bryanna Clark Grogan's seitan turkey that I had in my freezer. Her seitan turkey and ham are really quite good, but it's a day long project to make them, so every now and then I'll spend an entire day and make about four loaves and cut them in half and freeze them to use when I need seitan meats. Chicken style seitan would work here too, as would Morningstar Chik'n Strips too, most likely.