VeganMoFo: Sausage, Potato, and Pumpkin Enchilada Bake

Vegan Mofo is upon us! And the world shall bow to it's knees! I am absolutely giddy today. Not just because this marks the beginning of a wonderful month of vegan food blogginess, but I just came up with one of the most fabulous things I have ever created. Seriously. Sausage, potato and pumpkin baked together in an enchilasagna type orgy of fun. Very good.

It's entirely possible that I'll have my Tex Mex license revoked. These have not one shred of Mexican influence to them...unless you count the tortillas. I actually got the inspiration from La Dolce Vegan. There's a recipe called Punkin Pasta. I wanted to work with pumpkin this week and thought of a way to transform a familiar recipe.

If I could sum up this recipe in a sentence: This is what fall tastes like. Trust.

Okay, so that was two sentences. Sue me.

Now, this recipe can be a bit time consuming if you make your own seitan. However, the rest isn't too much work at all. If you try it, please let me know what you think.

Sausage, Potato, and Pumpkin Enchilada Bake
10 corn tortillas

Filling:
2 cups yukon gold potatoes, diced
¾ cup green bell pepper (about half of a medium sized pepper)
¾ cup yellow onion, coarsely chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
Splash of water
2 cups Italian Seitan Sausage, crumbled (recipe follows or use premade ones)
1 cup Pumpkin Cashew Cream (recipe follows)
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh sage for garnish, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and oil and 8x8 casserole dish. Set aside.

Add olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they are just beginning to soften. Add the bell pepper and sauté for about 3 minutes. Place the potatoes in the skillet and stir. When the potatoes become translucent add a splash of water to the pan to scrape up the potatoes and onion. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl add the seitan sausage, pumpkin cashew cream, and potato mixture. Stir thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Place a thin layer of the pumpkin cashew cream on the bottom of the casserole dish. Add three corn tortillas (halved) to cover the bottom. Spread half the sausage and potato mixture on top. Add another three corn tortillas (also halved). Top with the remaining potato and sausage mixture. Neatly place the remaining four tortillas on top of the casserole and spread the pumpkin cashew cream on top.

Place in the oven until the potatoes are cooked and the pumpkin cashew cream is beginning to brown, about 30-35 minutes. Remove from the oven and garnish with fresh sage.


Italian Seitan Sausage (Adapted from Seitan O Greatness)

Ingredients:
1.5 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp fennel seeds
½ tsp dried sage
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

3/4 cups water
4 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp tamari
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp liquid smoke

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl mix dry ingredients. Mix the rest of the ingredients (liquid ingredients) in a smaller mixing bowl. Whisk well until mixed.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix well, then knead for a minute or two.

Form into a log (6-8" long), wrap tightly in foil, twisting ends. Make sure to leave a little bit of room so the seitan doesn't bust out of the foil. Bake for 90 minutes. When done baking, unwrap and leave out to cool all the way.

Pumpkin Cashew Cream
2 cups raw cashews
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 tsp salt
½ cup water
1 15 oz can pureed pumpkin
½ cup loosely packed sage, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the cashews in a food processor until they are very small crumbs. Add the garlic, salt, and water and process until smooth. Add the pumpkin and sage and process until well blended, making sure to scrape down the sides of the processor. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I served this with a simple side salad and the Mediterranean Vinaigrette from Veganomicon. That's all for now. So happy eating and a very Happy World Vegetarian Day to you!