Tuna casserole was my all time favorite meal growing up…right next to spaghetti.  All the cheese, chips, noodles and cream of mushroom soup…I am drooling thinking of it.  Not vegan at all.  But still.  Who doesn’t love all those items separately, let alone all heated up together?

So, it was time to remake it!  I had made it a few times, vegetarian style, using the creamy soup and cheese, but with tofu and broccoli.  Very yummy, but again not vegan.  So time to give the whole thing a massive re-do.  Other people have done this, but for me this was a massive undertaking.

I normally only make things that I have done a thousand times (stir fries) but nothing so intensive as veganizing the entire meal.  Veganizing it with vegan cream of mushroom soup and no noodles either-I used quinoa…and you know what? Of course something had to not go as planned in my head.  The soup and the quinoa.  You can learn of my non-success of the soup here but the quinoa surprised me!  I have used quinoa many, many times before-even as an oatmeal substitute.  But for some reason, it did not want to work for me.  Before I added it to the casserole it was still crunchy and had a ton of water left in the pot, and I have never had that happen before.  Luckily after adding it all together and baking it, it was fine.  Still frustrating though.

For the rest of the casserole I decided on no cheese-just on top a vegan kind-the cheese didn’t end up being my favorite so I will need to try a different kind.  Cheese is the hard one to give up as a vegan-growing up in a cheese state it was always in the house.  The consistency of faux cheese versus animal cheese is also something that is hard to get past.  Faux doesn’t melt…

I also have to add veggies to everything, and the more the better. For this casserole I added all green veggies…don’t know how it ended up that way, but after my casserole was done it was green and cream 🙂  No matter what I use tofu for I always put broccoli with it.  I don’t know why they go together but in my head you can’t have one without the other.  I don’t use green beans or celery a lot in my cooking but I decided to add them into this. Celery and green beans are some of the cheapest produce so I don’t know why I don’t use them more!

Ingredients, 8 servings

1 Package Hard Tofu

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 Tbsp Black Pepper

1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Garlic Powder

1 Pkg Chopped Broccoli

1 Pkg Chopped Spinach

3 Stalks Celery, chopped

6 Stalks Green Onion, chopped

1 Lbs Fresh Green Beans, chopped

1 Large Onion, chopped

1 1/2 C Quinoa, soaked, drained, boiled

1 Pkg Vegan Cheese for the top

1.  Soak quinoa for 1 hour in water. Drain then add fresh water to pot with quinoa and boil.

2.  Turn skillet to medium/high.  Drain tofu and chop into small bite size chunks.  Add oil to skillet then drop in tofu, pepper, salt and garlic powder.  Stir so seasoning gets all over tofu.

3.  Defrost broccoli and spinach.  Wash then chop celery, green onion and green beans.

4.  Slide sautéed tofu out of skillet and drop in both onions, celery and beans.  Add broccoli and spinach when it is ready.  Saute until well cooked.

5.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.

6.  Add tofu to veggies.  Drain and if necessary press out excess water.  Add quinoa to the veg and tofu.

7.  Add mushroom soup.  Stir together and let heat through.

8.  Pour ingredients into a large baking dish.  I had to do one large and one small to get it all in.

9.  Add vegan cheese of choice to top of casserole.  Bake for 25 minutes.

10.  Let cool and portion out.  Enjoy!!!!