Vegan frittata with sausage & kale

Slice of vegan, egg-free frittata on plate with cilantro garnish.

5 from 3 votes

Vegan frittata with sausage & kale

Nothing says brunch like a comforting slice of vegan frittata. It's dotted with vegetables in a creamy tofu & cashew filling.

It's great for holiday breakfasts or meal planning. Make it on the weekend, then just reheat on weekday mornings.

Prep Time20

Cook Time35

Cooling time10

Total Time1 5

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American, Vegan

Keyword: brunch, egg free

Servings: slices

Calories: 147kcal

Author: Cadry Nelson

Ingredients

1 teaspoon avocado oil or other neutral-flavored oil, divided
½ cup raw cashew pieces soaked ahead of time if necessary & drained
3 Tablespoons non-dairy milk
½ teaspoon hot sauce
1 Tablespoon white miso paste
1 teaspoon stoneground mustard
16 ounces super firm tofu in vacuum packaging**
6 Tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
½ teaspoon granulated onion
½ teaspoon paprika plus extra for sprinkling on top as garnish
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon ancho chili powder or berbere
½ teaspoon kala namak a.k.a. black salt***
⅛ teaspoon turmeric
½ cup seitan sausage or bacon, cut in small, bite-sized pieces****
½ cup red bell pepper chopped
½ cup onions chopped
½ cup curly kale chopped (Basically one handful)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a pie pan with about ½ teaspoon of oil. (I used a glass pie pan, but any type is fine.) Set aside.
If you have a high speed blender you can soak for the raw cashews for a shorter amount of time than if you're using a standard blender. Put the raw cashews in a bowl and cover them with hot water (even just microwaving them in water until hot works fine). Let them soak in the hot water for at least 10 minutes. Then drain & continue with the recipe.
If you don't have a high speed blender, cover the raw cashews with hot or cold water and allow them to soak for several hours to soften. Then drain & continue with the recipe. (There are more workaround ideas in the comments.)
For easiest blending, I recommend putting the soft or liquid ingredients into the blender pitcher first. Put soaked & drained raw cashews, non-dairy milk, hot sauce, white miso paste, and stoneground mustard into the blender pitcher. Then crumble the super firm tofu into the blender pitcher. Blend until smooth.
If you're using a Vitamix blender, press the ingredients with a tamper to get everything fully blended. If not, stop occasionally to scrape down the sides, so that everything gets evenly combined and there are no whole pieces of cashew left.
Now it's time to add the dry ingredients to the blender. Add nutritional yeast flakes, granulated onion, paprika, cumin, ancho chili powder (or berbere), kala namak, and turmeric. Blend to combine.
(If it doesn't get completely incorporated, that's okay. You'll have a chance to mix it more evenly in a second.)
Bring a skillet to a medium heat. Add remaining ½ teaspoon oil to the skillet along with seitan bacon or sausage. Brown for a couple minutes.
Then add red bell pepper, onions, and curly kale. Cook for two or three minutes more, until the kale is softened & bright green. You don't have to worry about getting everything super cooked, because it will cook further in the oven.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the tofu mixture from the blender with the vegetable mixture from the skillet. Make sure everything is evenly incorporated and combined by using a spoon or your your hands.
(If you're using your hands, just make sure the vegetable mixture isn't too hot, so that you don't get burned.)
Move the tofu mixture to the reserved greased pie pan. Use a knife or rubber spatula to smooth the top. Sprinkle with more paprika for extra color.
Move to the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow it to cool & firm for about 10 minutes until slicing.

Notes

*If you don't have a high speed blender & want to make this frittata in less time, you can use a clean coffee grinder instead of soaking the cashews. Grind the dry raw cashews in a coffee grinder until they're the texture of powder or flour. Then move the ground cashews to the standard blender with the other ingredients.

**For this recipe, I use vacuum packed tofu that doesn't need to be pressed. If you're using water-packed tofu, just drain and give the tofu a squeeze. Most water-packed tofu comes in 14 ounce packages. So you'll need a little more than one package for this recipe. If you want to be exact, use a kitchen scale.

***Kala namak (also known as black salt) is a sulfurous salt that adds an eggy flavor to dishes. You can find it online or in Indian markets. If you don't have access to kala namak, use an equal amount of regular table salt instead. It won't add an eggy flavor, of course, but it will still taste good.

For the sausage or bacon, I like Herbivorous Butcher, Upton's Naturals, or Field Roast.

For a gluten-free option, replace the seitan bacon or sausage with the vegetable of your choice. Or use Beyond Meat or Impossible sausage, which are gluten-free. If you're using Beyond Meat or Impossible, I recommend cooking them in a separate pan, because they release a lot of oil. Then add them to the other ingredients once cooked.

The filling is open to variation. The sausage, onions, bell pepper, and kale can be replaced with 2 cups of the vegetables, vegan meats, or non-dairy cheeses of your choice.

To reheat the frittata, warm individual slices in the microwave for about a minute.

Recipe adapted from Somer's retirement quiche.

Nutrition