Hasson - Vegan Casseroles: Pasta Bakes, Gratins, Pot Pies, and More

2014 by Julie Hasson

Photographs 2014 by Felicia Perretti

Published by Running Press,

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013951598

E-book ISBN 978-0-7624-5528-7

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing

Cover and interior design by Jason Kayser

Edited by Kristen Green Wiewora

Typography: Celias and Freight

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To Jay, Sydney, and Noah, the loves of my life. How did I ever get so lucky?

CONTENTS

First and foremost, thank you, Jay. You are truly my other half and my best friend, and you make every day a fun adventure. I love you to the moon and back!

A giant thank-you to my incredible children, Sydney and Noah. You guys are the best! Your taste-testing, recipe suggestions, and never-ending patience while I was buried in the kitchen are bar none. I love you guys!

I also want to thank everyone involved with putting this book together. Lisa and Sally Ekus, my stellar super-agents: its always a pleasure working with you two. Kristen Green Wiewora, my editor at Running Press, for helping this book come together so beautifully. Felicia Perretti for your stellar photos, Lori Lewis and Katie Wilson for your great proofreading and copyediting, and designer Jason Kayser for making this book look so cool.

Mom, thank you for so many things, but especially for introducing me to tofu, home-cooked dinners, and homemade bread, all those years ago. You taught me what real food is all about, and I will be forever grateful. And Jon, what can I say? You are not only the best brother a girl could ever have, but there is no one else that I can talk food with like we do. Dad and Ellen, thank you for your love and support, and for sharing my cookbooks with everyone you meet.

A big thank-you to Bobs Red Mill, Ancient Harvest Pasta, Sweet & Sara Marshmallows, Beyond Meat, and Butler Foods for letting me test recipes with your fantastic products! And last but not least, thank you to my wonderful crew of taste testers, who so enthusiastically tested out these recipes and always gave me your honest feedback: Craig Lee, Jill Russell, Thalia Palmer, Marti Miller Hall, Kelly Cavalier, Rebekah Reid, Susan Gottlieb, Brandie Britt, Krys Kagan, Sheree Britt, Matt, and James.

Just mention the word casserole, and you can see peoples faces light up. Casseroles evoke associations of comfort food and warm, family meals, and favorite dishes that mothers or grandmothers served for dinner. Casseroles are a classic dish often brought to church gatherings, potlucks, and even weddings! Big dishes of layered creamy goodness and love, and are always welcome at my table.

Casseroles are the epitome of one-dish meals, which became very popular in the United States in the 1950s. All of those TV moms of yore would don their stylish aprons and serve piping-hot casseroles to their hungry, happy families.

Traditionally, casseroles are made with modern convenience foods like canned soup, frozen vegetables and potatoes, a multitude of seasonings, and copious amounts of butter, cheese, and meat. They are definitely not healthy but are certainly tasty.

So when I set out to write this book, I thought it would be pretty easy to take traditional casserole recipes and give them a vegan spin. Wow: I couldnt have been more wrong. Even though grocery stores are now filled to the brim with all sorts of vegan analogues and versions of traditional staples like meat, cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, and milk, you cant just swap vegan ingredients for their non-vegan counterparts. Seriously, trust me on this. I also discovered that, although a lot of the original casseroles are delicious, I couldnt, in good conscience, feel okay about adding two sticks of vegan butter to a dish and calling it done, no matter how buttery and good it might taste. So I had to rethink the whole casserole concept and look at it with fresh eyes.

This was no easy task. For starters, one of the best things about casseroles is how quickly you can throw them together. So if youre not relying on packaged, store-bought, prepared foods, how do you make a casserole with all of its components in under three hours? This was the biggest challenge of all, but I was determined to have the recipes come together easily. So I created a whole chapter of sauces that are quickly mixed in the blender and then cooked on the stove top. These sauces are easily mixed with your casserole components, such as cooked pasta, rice, quinoa, potatoes, or veggies. The sauce chapter is key, because the sauces are truly what give the casseroles their great taste and creamy texture, and bind everything together. And theres no need for canned condensed soups anymore, because Ive got a fresh take covered in the book too, which might be perfect for veganizing Aunt Bettys Thanksgiving green bean casserole. Frozen spinach, hash browns, and beloved potato tots are pretty much the only frozen ingredients youll find in the recipes. Although you could make those from scratch, Im trying to save you from spending the entire day in the kitchen. Remember, these are modern, streamlined casseroles.

I didnt want to only include American-style casseroles, so theres also lots of international casserole favorites too, like lasagna, enchiladas, stuffed cabbage rolls, kugels, stove-top casseroles, desserts, and so much more.

These casseroles are much healthier than traditional casseroles. No cholesterol, no animal products, and definitely no gobs of cheese and butter. These are casseroles that you can truly feel good serving to your family, without any guilt.