Tuesday, September 3, 2013

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).

4 comments:

  1. I love the easy dishes when life gets busy. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. I would never use a slow cooker if I wasn't home! I even turn the stove off when I am leaving the house to take the garbage out! #paranoid

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  3. I think it looks good! I'm constantly suggesting to my boyfriend that we make breakfast soup and he looks at me like I'm crazy, so I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds it appealing. :)

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  4. Funny, I passed over that recipe in the book because I've yet to meet a store-bought vegan cheese I really love, but now that I'm hoping to get some use out of Artisan Vegan Cheeses, I totally plan to revisit this recipe and this cookbook.

    I went so far as to buy an appliance timer for our slow cooker, but I'm too paranoid to ever have used it when we weren't home. I use it while sleeping though. :)

    thanks for posting this!

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