Meat-less Monday!! Well let’s be honest, everyday here at Wholesome Patisserie is meat free, YAY!!
How was your weekend you guys??! I hope it was a fabulous one! I was super busy in the kitchen on Sunday and this is when this deliciousness was born.
I was unsure what to name this dish and I think I sort of did an ok job at describing it. If you kept up with my Instagram stories yesterday, you would have seen that I was experimenting with meat free meatballs. It didn’t go to plan…
This rice, tomato, vegetable, potato bake thingy ma bob evolved throughout the process of me attempting to make successful vegan meatballs, they failed. So I picked myself up from rock bottom, turned lemons into lemonade and created what you see before you.
So here’s what went down. I made the filling mixture, heated up the tomato sauces, rolled the filling into balls, placed them into the sauce and simmered them, hoping for the best, (basic protocol for making meatballs). I went to turn the balls around, gently, but they fell apart, saddest face ever! So I immediately removed the balls from the sauce, well I removed one of them, turned off all heat and put on my invisible thinking cap. First off though, I knew that I should have fried the balls in a hot fry pan until they browned and then should have added them to the sauce. I’m not sure that would have even worked though. So since the balls had already partly fell apart into the sauce, I decided to smash it altogether to create an epic bolognese like sauce. I tasted it and I was pretty impressed and happy with the flavour and texture.
Next was, do I add pasta? No, I have enough pasta recipes for now here on my blog plus I ain’t got no pasta in the house that will do the job and I’m not going to the supermarket looking like a death warmed up. No thank you. I will not scare the general public just for pasta. Next best thing, rice! Well rice is the greatest thing in it’s own field and who has ever had a bolognese like sauce filled with cooked rice instead of pasta?! Not me!! I was skeptical, should I or shouldn’t I? Just go for it! So rice was cooked and added to the sauce.
Needs another element. If the meatballs were a success, I was going to serve it with some sort of cooked potato. Shepard’s pie came to mind, add mash potato on top! The dish was evolving, looking and sounding delicious and delightful, woohoo!
So that is exactly what happened in the kitchen when I was trying to successfully make vegan meat balls, it turned into a similar version of Shepard’s pie! I’m pretty happy with the end result, otherwise I wouldn’t be sharing it with you! Will you make it?? Few more facts, it’s gluten free, dairy free and vegan! ENJOY!
- Filling
- 1½ cups basmati rice
- 1 large purple onion, peeled and halved
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 cups broccoli florets
- 300g plain tempeh, roughly chopped
- 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
- 2 Tbsp sesame seeds
- Small bunch fresh parsley leaves, roughly chopped
- 1 Tbsp dried Italian herbs
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 400g can diced tomatoes
- 1 500g bottle pasta sauce of choice, I used an Italian tomato pasta sauce
- ½ cup vegetable stock
- Topping
- 4 medium white potatoes, peeled and quartered
- 3 Tbsp coconut oil, room temperature
- ½ cup almond milk or milk of choice
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F). Grease a large oven roasting pan with coconut oil, set aside.
- Filling
- Prepare and cook rice according to packet instructions. Set aside.
- In a high speed food processor, add onion and garlic, pulse on high until roughly chopped, but not too small. Add to a large mixing bowl.
- Add broccoli florets to processor, pulse on high until all broken up. Add to onion mixture.
- Add tempeh to food processor, pulse on high until all broken up and nearly smooth but still a little chunky. Add to onion and broccoli.
- To the bowl, add nutritional yeast, sesame seeds, fresh parsley, dried herbs, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix until well combined. Set aside.
- In a large fry pan or pot, over high heat, pour in canned diced tomatoes, pasta sauce and stock. Mix well.
- Bring sauce to a boil, stirring occasionally.
- Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer and stir through tempeh and vegetable mixture. The mixture will be thick but when you add it to the sauce, it will smooth out and mix well with the sauce.
- Simmer for a further 10 minutes then remove from heat.
- Topping
- Meanwhile, begin mash potato topping.
- Fill a medium sized pot halfway up with filtered water. Bring to a boil over high heat.
- Once boiling, add quartered potatoes, boil on high for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are completely tender and soft.
- Drain potatoes, add to a mixing bowl and mash them until no lumps remain.
- Stir through coconut oil.
- Pour in almond milk, mix until smooth.
- Add garlic, salt and pepper, mix until well combined.
- Gently stir through cooked rice into filling mixture.
- Pour filling mixture into prepared roasting pan, smoothing out the top with a spatula.
- Dollop mash potato evenly over filling, gently smooth potato out with a spatula or a spoon until it completely covers the filling.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes or until mash potato topping has browned.
- NOTE: If the mash potato topping hasn’t browned after 20 minutes or so, I turned on my oven grill to high and browned it that way.
- Remove from oven and serve immediately.
- Enjoy!
The filling mixture, before added to the sauce, will be thick to the point it will hold it’s shape when rolled. It’s meant to be this way. Once it’s added to the sauce, it will smooth out and it combines well with the sauce.
When baking in the oven, you want to bake it until the mash potato has browned nice and evenly on top. You can turn on your grill on your oven at the end to help it along. Or transfer to a separate broiler to finish it off.
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