Nostalgia

Comfort food is an interesting concept. First off, it ranges from entrées to desserts. And what is being comforted is also wide ranging. Are they traditional comfort foods like mac & cheese, pizza, ice cream, chocolate? Or maybe food items our mothers cooked for us? In that case, mine would be eggplant parmigiana, curries, and my mothers famous cheesecake.

One food that I have not eaten in years that I loved as a kid was her oven roasted sausage, peppers & onions dish. Potatoes also have made an appearance often in this. So it was long overdue to be veganized.

Of course, this would not be possible without my favorite faux sausage from Field Roast Grain Meat Company. There are 3 flavors of 'sausage': Apple - which is great for breakfast or just about anything; chorizo, which is wonderful in a breakfast burrito, and their Italian style. After first tasting the Italian style, it really drive home for me that many of our beloved, cherished gastronomical delights have less to do with a particular foodstuff (i.e. meat),and more to do with all the embellishments and seasonings.

The fennel seed in this imitates an Italian sausage so closely, it would only need a lot of grease to be identical. I cut up some baby red potatoes, tossed them in oil& rosemary and salt, cut up onions and peppers, put them in my favorite La Crueset  enameled cast iron au gratin pan and topped them off with the 'sausages.' Cover with foil, into a pre-heated oven @ 425 degrees and baked for about 1 hour. I take the foil off for about 15 minutes at the end.

Bon Appetite~