Comfort Food

When I reflect on what the words vegan, vegetarian, or diet, and what they've meant to me in the past, I almost immediately come up with some instant associations; deprivation, hunger, lack of flavor or substance to name a few. One of the things I immediately start missing are the comfort foods we all turn to on a cold winter night, or a rainy day home on the couch when we just want something hearty and flavorful to satisfy the palette. I'm happy to tell you that if you decide to orbit vegan, or even raw vegan, those comfort foods you love are still there for you, in slightly altered, more healthful forms. One such dish is the Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits ("Veganomicon," Moscowitz & Romero, p. 172 in my edition.)

When I think of cassoulet, it tends to involve lamb, a rich flavor succulent juices. This version is just as rich in flavor, and the involvement of yukon gold potatoes adds a heartiness that will satisfy your hunger, the ingredients are as follows:

2 Yukon gold potatoes
3 cups veggie broth
2 tbsp olive oil
2 leeks, washed and thinly sliced. (Side note here: leeks are a pain in the tuckus to clean, I've found it's much easier to chop them dirty, as it were, and then give them a thorough rinse to do away with dirt and debris that was contained within.)
1 small onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups carrots diced
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
Several pinches of fresh cracked black pepper
Salt to taste, if any (the broth may be plenty salty to begin with.)
3/4 cup frozen peas
1 can of navy beans, drained and rinsed

For the biscuits:
3/4 cup soy milk (or any other non-dairy milk, I used rice milk and they came out just fine.)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (I like Bragg's)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (this may lose me a reader or two, but I did not have any organic, whole grain, organic, frou-frou flour in the pantry, and I wasn't about to make another trip to the store, so for the purposes of this recipe, it was plain ol' bleached white flour. Sorry.)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup non hydrogenated vegan shortening (once again, apologies, I used Crisco. Although the container assures me that their product is significantly lower in saturated fat and trams fats than it used to be. Next time I will buy Woo-woo brand. Promise.)

It's quite a roster of ingredients, and you guessed it, a rather specific preparation process. Totally worth it, but the PIA (pain in a$$) factor is mildly higher than usual for this one, and I did inadvertently skip one or two critical, but not unfixable, steps.
Seriously folks, just buy the Veganomicon it's worth the $27.50 for this recipe alone.

I wanted to give an idea of how it looks underneath the biscuits so I dug in first, this was one hell of a stew!!



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Location:Madison, CT