We had a few friends over for New Year's Eve, and decided on a Taco Bar, so everyone could put their food together the way they wanted it. We had spicy black beans, rice, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, Daiya cheese, and a couple of salsas, with organic corn tortillas. As a side dish, I made Paul Graham's Vegan Corn Pudding, which he recently posted on his blog, Eating Vegan in Vegas. The tacos were good. Really good. But the corn pudding stole the show.
Paul's original recipe is here. It's fast and easy to make, with things like my favorite Daiya cheese (they really should pay me for all the promoting I do for them!), diced green chiles, and vegan sour cream. I changed it up a bit, using things I had here at home. I made the sour cream from cashews, and the parm from almonds and nutritional yeast. I had some local green chiles in the freezer, so used those, and improvised on the breadcrumbs and egg replacer. It all worked, but I'll admit to making it a more complex recipe than Paul's. What can i say? I like making things from scratch. Try it either way that works for you. You just can't go wrong with this beautiful golden dish of comfort food.
Paul's Corn Pudding
4 oz melted Earth Balance butter (they should be paying me too!)
4 cups frozen corn (always use organic corn)
3 T chia seeds
6 T water (chia seeds and water make a dandy egg replacer that binds the other ingredients well)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vinegar (baking powder and vinegar help the dish to puff up a bit)
1 C vegan sour cream -
(To make this, soak 1 cup of raw cashews in water for 20 minutes or more. Drain and rinse the cashews, and buzz them up in the food processor with some lemon juice and salt, and a little nut milk to get the right consistency.)
1 package Daiya Pepper Jack shreds
1/2 cup cornmeal (I had polenta, and it worked fine)
1/2 cup or more diced green chiles
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegan parmesan -
(To make this, buzz up 1 cup nutritional yeast, 1/2 cup raw almonds, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder. If you have time, slowly bake the mixture on a tray until it's crumbly. In this dish, it works fine moist.)
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs - I let a gluten free rice English muffin dry out, then buzzed it up with some herbs. Perfect.
In the food processor, buzz up 1 cup of the corn with the melted butter. Then, in a large bowl, stir the blended corn/butter together with all the other ingredients, except the parm and bread crumbs. Place the mixture in a well buttered casserole dish, and bake for about 35 minutes at 350º, or until golden brown on top. Let it set for a few minutes before cutting.
Oh yeah... after writing this, I think I have to make it again for dinner tonight. And I'm glad there won't be so many of us to share it.
