Broccoli Casserole
1 potato, chopped
1 small carrot, chopped
1 small or medium onion, chopped
1 cup vegetable broth
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound frozen broccoli
1/2 pound firm tofu, crumbled
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic
1 cup cooked brown rice
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a casserole dish. In a sauce pan bring the potato, carrot, onion and vegetable broth to a boil, add salt, then cover and cook on medium heat until tender, about 10 minutes. In the meantime, thaw the frozen broccoli in a colander by running warm water over it.
2. After the potato mixture is done cooking, put it all in a blender along with nutritional yeast, tofu, yeast, lemon juice and garlic. Blend until creamy. This mixture is delicious by itself!
3. Pour mixture into prepared casserole dish and smooth it out and make it even all around the dish. Mix rice with the broccoli. Add rice/broccoli mixture to the top of the potato/carrot mixture and smooth it out. You should have a layer of creamy potato mixture on bottom, with broccoli/rice on top.
4. Bake for about 40 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown on top.
Originally this recipe called for mushrooms but I hate mushrooms, you may want to add them if you like them, but I left them out.
Source of recipe: This recipe was modified from the Vegetarian Times cookbook. I made some minor changes and it turned out great.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
This recipe produced SO MUCH sauce! I think if I use it in the future, I'll adapt it a bit and include some squash and black beans or breadcrumbs, so it becomes a heartier casserole. It was so saucy this time around that I served it with polenta or with some rye bread, so I think those other ingredients would turn it into more of a meal on its own. I did include mushrooms, but perhaps some of the problem was that I don't have a proper casserole dish - I had to use a bread dish with about 2/3 the recipe, so maybe having a thinner cooking surface would help it beef up a bit so it's not so much "broccoli floating in cheese sauce".
Next time I make this, I will put the broccoli and rice on the bottom, and the potato cream on the top. My broccoli blackened (not terrible) and my rice went crunchy (terrible). It was okay, but I probably wouldn't serve it to company. Perhaps the addition of mushrooms would have dissipated my Broccoli Casserole apathy.
wow! this was so good! very comfort-food-ish. i followed the recipe exactly except i used fresh broccoli and i didn't have an onion on hand. oh, and i did add mushrooms - wasn't really sure what to do with them so i added half to the blender mixture and half to the rice / broccoli. oh yeah,and i added extra garlic. anyway, geez, this turned out so good! it would be better with more rice, i think, like maybe an extra cup. breadcrumbs on top might be good too. and i ate like half the pan in one sitting so next time i'll double the recipe.