Vegan Stir Fried Rice

What is going on with this weather here in the East!  I am so tired of this rain, dreariness, no sun is no good.  I want to be outside, working in the garden, planting flowers, so my work will be done for the season.  I don't mean to complain, but really Mother Nature cut me a break.

OK,I am done my rant now, onto better things.  The hubby and I are trying to be good about eating. We are slowly easing into trying vegan fare and such. You can make practically anything vegan that's not, just by incorporating different foods and ingredients.  The eyes are tricky, but if you didn't know the cauliflower in this dish wasn't rice, you would not miss rice at all. Check it out.

Recipe below.

To print recipe click on it, highlight and print.

I use this riced cauliflower from Trader Joe's, instead of making the whole mess of breaking apart a head of cauliflower and putting it through a food processor.  Too messy for me, so I go the easy route, cut the bag open and pour! Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got to take of this recipe because my family dug into this dish before I had a chance to take any, yeah it was that good!

Veggie Stir Fried Rice

To Fry the Cauliflower

2 tablespoons vegan butter or use 1 tablespoon canola oil

3/4 cup vegetable stock or broth (stock has more flavor)

1 bag frozen riced cauliflower (I used Trader Joe's)

To Stir Fry The Vegetables

2 tablespoons canola oil or peanut oil if you like that flavor

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 sweet onion, diced

1 bunch asparagus, cut in 1" pieces (see note)

2 cups sliced baby bella mushrooms

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (or 1/2 teaspoon ground)

3 cloves minced garlic

3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 green onions (scallions) sliced thin

1 tablespoon sesame seeds (toast them if you like)

Directions

To Fry Cauliflower:

Melt butter in a large skillet or wok, over medium high heat. Add cauliflower and stir fry until lightly browned.  Add the vegetable stock/broth and continue to cook until the cauliflower is tender, about 10 minutes.  Transfer to a bowl, set aside.

To Stir Fry The Vegetables

Heat the canola oil in the same pan, over medium high heat. Make sure pan is hot, add red pepper, onion, asparagus, mushrooms, ginger and garlic.  Stir fry until tender but crisp not mushy, this only takes a few minutes. Stir in the soy sauce and cook for a few seconds to heat through.  Remove from heat, drizzle on the sesame oil, stir it in. Serve over the cauliflower and top with sliced scallions and sesame seeds. Makes 4 servings.

NOTE: If you don't like asparagus use green beans, pea pods, broccoli, or any other green vegetable that you like, it's all good.

Broccoli and Cauliflower Casserole

My gears were going, I was looking for something different for a vegetable side dish for Thanksgiving.  Corn is always a side dish, that's a given, and I always make my roasted green beans which are delicious.  This year I wanted to make something other than plain old peas or carrots, and decided on broccoli and cauliflower.  But, how to make it so the kids would eat it was another trick to pull off.  I wanted it creamy and cheesy, so went to the pantry and the fridge and pulled out mushroom soup and cheddar cheese.  And, to add a little crunch, because they always like that, I used bread crumbs to top the casserole with.  Well, let me tell you they loved it! My sister doesn't even like cauliflower and she ate. This is how I made it.

A few of the ingredients to pull off my casserole.

Topped with the creamy sauce and cheese and into the oven it goes.  Bake it, then top with the breadcrumbs for a very tasty casserole.  It's almost a meal in itself.

Creamy Cheddar Broccoli and Cauliflower

2 heads of fresh broccoli

1 head of cauliflower

1 block of Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated

2 cans of Campbell's low salt cream of mushroom soup

1/4 cup of of Hellmann's Light Mayonnaise

1 cup of seasoned bread crumbs

5 tablespoons of melted butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Clean and cut the broccoli and cauliflower into florets.  Arrange them in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Mix the 2 cans of soup with the mayo.  Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the grated cheese.  Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.  Mix the bread crumbs with the melted butter.  Top the casserole with the breadcrumbs and bake for another 15 minutes or until breadcrumbs are browned.  Leave the casserole in the oven and turn it off.  Sprinkle the other 1/2 cup of cheese that is left, over the top.  Remove from oven when the cheese is melted and serve.  Makes 8 - 10 servings.