Single Guy’s Kitchen

Easter Sunday just seems to lend itself to a nice brunch. I remember growing up with a honey baked ham almost every year. Spending Easter with a vegetarian this year rules out the ham and most traditional items from my childhood (my mom seasoned just about everything with bacon grease) and besides, we wanted a brunch that leaned more toward breakfast than lunch. So what to fix instead? Sandy found this nice looking recipe for a “Soysage” Breakfast Casserole. It has that Sunday morning brunch feel and is vegetarian friendly so we decided to give it a shot.

Soysage is a play on the word sausage. It refers to a soy based vegetarian friendly breakfast sausage alternative. You can learn more about my experiences with soysage here. It’s actually pretty tasty and one of the better meat substitutes.

The recipe is simple and easy to follow. I made a few substitutions but that shouldn’t matter much. Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

1 160z container low fat cottage cheese

3/4 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

4 eggs beaten

six soysage patties cooked and crumbled (1 box)

1/4 sweet onion

10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained

salt and pepper

I combined all the above ingredients in a mixing bowl, added a dash of salt and a little pepper, and then spread it into a greased 9×9 baking dish. We didn’t have a pie plate available. Toss this into a preheated 350F oven and bake for 40 minutes. 40 minutes was perfect for us. To be sure insert a knife into the center of the dish and if it comes out clean the casserole has set and you should be ready to eat. Remember to let it cool for at least five minutes though. This will make cutting and serving much easier.

It’s pretty easy but here are a couple of extra tips to make sure things go smoothly. You want your spinach as well drained as possible. The easiest way to do this that I know of is the to wring the spinach out between two paper towels once it has thawed. Grab about half a handful of the thawed spinach, wrap it loosely between the two dry, clean paper towels, and squeeze the hell out of it like you are squeezing out a rag. Don’t worry you won’t hurt the spinach. Just keep this up until you have done all the spinach. I hate doing this so I might try fresh spinach in the future. I’d also recommend doing the preparation the night before. The casserole takes 40 minutes to bake as it is so any time saved combining the ingredients will get you closer to eating on Sunday morning. Between the soysage and the spinach, I’m sure Sandy and I spent a good 20 minutes aside from the 40 minutes of baking.

It was a good dish but it seemed to be lacking a little something. This may have been the brand of soysage we used. I’ve found the store brand can be a little bland when compared to Morningstar and the national brands. Don’t be afraid of the pepper or other spices with this though. I’d say use whatever you season your eggs with it and don’t be shy.

So there you have it. Enjoy your meat-free breakfast with a nice pot of tea or cup of coffee. We had tea. Don’t worry, if the soysage isn’t your thing then good ‘ol fashioned pork sausage (or whatever kind you like) could be easily substituted. I do recommend you at least give the soysage a try though!