Bobotie – a vegan version

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The snow is falling here and it is supposed to dip down to -20 degrees celsius on Monday night. Yikes! This will likely be the nastiest cold snap of the year for us, so I want to prepare you with a new comfort food recipe I have ‘veganized’. It’s called Bobotie (I didn’t make up the name)… and is a traditional South African main course dish with amazing flavour. There is some debate over whether it came from Indonesia or Malaysia or if it was brought by the Dutch, in the 17th century, to South Africa. Regardless, it is a keeper.

We grew up with my mom making this dish numerous times a year in the cold winters of central Saskatchewan, and I remember enjoying it even as a kid. The scent of the spices that filled the house as I cooked it, brought me straight back to our farm kitchen to the age of about 12. Funny how smells can transport us places isn’t it?

Bobotie is traditionally made with either beef or lamb (ugh) that is slow cooked with fruit, nuts and spices, then baked after being topped with an egg, butter and cream custard. It’s just about as non-vegan as you can get! Many recipes have slices of bread in the custard topping, but I decided to omit this. If you love the idea of a bread custard topping, you could easily slice day old bread thinly and place on top before adding the custard.

The beautiful thing about this recipe is that after it is transformed to a plant-based dish, the texture and interesting flavour remains, even though all of the unhealthy animal products have been booted out!

You will be doing your body a favour by cutting out all of the artery damaging saturated fats that the traditional recipes contain. This version is added oil and cholesterol free. (You can only get cholesterol from animal products.)

Here are my substitutions:

~ Big Mountain Foods Veggie patties (or crumble) and tempeh to replace the hamburger. (You could substitute any veggie “ground round” of your liking.)
~ water for any oil or butter
~ soy milk for cow’s milk and cream
~ cornstarch and ground flax for egg

“Meat” mixture prepared in casserole dish.

“Egg” custard poured on top.

Cooked Bobotie with custard firmed up.

Bobotie - a vegan version

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Serves: 6 Prep Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 15 minutes on stove then 40 minutes in the oven 15 minutes on stove then 40 minutes in the oven

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
• water as moisture for stir frying
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 tablespoon garam masala spice
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger grated, or 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
• 1 package of tempeh, 8 oz, (250 grams)
• 1 -360 gram box (4) of Big Mountain Foods veggie patties crumbled, or Big Mountain Foods Cauliflower Crumble, 360 g box
• 1 apple, grated
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 2 tablespoons of apple jelly or fruit chutney (optional)
• 1/2 of a lemon, zested then squeezed
• Custard topping:
• 1 cup soy milk (or your plant milk of choice)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
• 1 teaspoon Braggs Aminos or soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Stir fry onions and garlic in a pan using a couple of tablespoons of water as needed to ensure the onions and garlic do not stick. Cook for about 3 minutes.
3. Next, stir in the turmeric, garam masala, curry powder and ginger and stir. 
4. Add the veggie crumble and tempeh, broken into small chunks.
5. Add in the grated apple, raisins, almonds, apple jelly or fruit chutney, lemon zest and lemon juice.  Allow to cook on medium/low heat for about 10 minutes.  
6. In the meantime, in a small bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the custard and whisk.  Allow to sit for a couple of minutes to thicken.
7. Lightly grease or line a 3.4 L casserole dish, or 9"x 9" baking dish with parchment paper.   Spoon the 'meat' mixture into the baking dish and flatten evenly.
8. Pour on the custard.  Bake uncovered at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes. Cover and allow to sit in the oven for ten minutes or so to allow for the custard to thicken up.  You shouldn't see any wet patches, other than in the cracks, on the top of the Bobotie.  
9. This should be served piping hot and is delicious on top of brown rice. 
10. This is good reheated (though it doesn't look very pretty), or used as a base in a wrap.

www.thevibrantveggie.com

If you enjoy this recipe, please share and leave me a message in the comments section at the bottom of this post!