MoFo Day 3: Breakfast Soup

I bought a Crock Pot with high aspirations, but my dreams of coming home from work to a hot meal were destroyed when I realized I’d be too paranoid to function with a heat-producing appliance on when I wasn’t home. I know people leave them unattended all the time, but after a house fire in college, I’m probably more fire-averse than average. Even if hot meals won’t be waiting for me, I was still excited to get Kathy Hester’s The Vegan Slow Cooker for Christmas last year. A ton of recipes sound good, and with vague memories of the delicious cheesy hashbrowns at every childhood potluck, I chose the Weekend Tofu and Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole. 

Before:

Like most recipes in the book, this came together really easily. You just pour in frozen hashbrowns, some (vegan) cheese, then a blended mixture of silken tofu, soy creamer and spices. 

It needs to cook for two hours, and breakfast is the only reason I get out of bed on the weekends, so making it in the morning wasn’t realistic. Instead I cooked it Monday night, put the crock in the refrigerator, and reheated some for breakfast Tuesday. Behold:

This is a horrible picture, partly because I was in a hurry to get to work, but also because the dish is not photogenic AT ALL. It’s a half-congealed, half-watery white blob. But let me tell you, it is the most delicious half-congealed, half-watery white blob I have ever tasted! It’s like cheesy hashbrown soup. I was skeptical the ½ cup of cheese the recipe called for would even be noticeable (because more cheese = more better), but it was a perfect amount. The tofu was creamy and flavorful enough that the cheese accented it, rather than masked it. I will definitely be making this again. I’ll try using Mori-Nu tofu instead of the water-packed kind to make it a little less runny, and I might add some black salt to get a little more egg flavor, but it’s still delicious as is. You can view the recipe on the Amazon preview (link above - breakfast is the last chapter).