Tonight for the kids' dinner I created a vegan recipe. I had been thinking about using brewer's yeast as a cheese substitute. The result was a hearty bean and rice casserole that had a bit of a curry taste, oddly enough.

Here is the recipe, more or less. I don't actually measure so I had to guess but I'm pretty accurate.

First, cook some rice in the normal way (1 cup rice/2 cups water--bring to boil--reduce to simmer) EXCEPT don't cook for the usual 20 minutes since the rice will continue cooking in the casserole later. I reduced the cooking time to 15 minutes. I used Basmati white because it is what I had but brown rice would be nice. Of course, it takes longer to cook brown rice so keep that in mind.

While the rice is cooking prepare the sauce.

Chop two large shallots or one small onion and one large clove of garlic. In a medium
saucepan sautee the garlic in onions in a tablespoon of oil (I used extra-virgin olive oil) until golden and translucent. I accidently browned mine but that is not the aim.:D

Meanwhile in a 1 quart jar with lid (I used a recycled spaghetti sauce jar) mix:
1/2 cup brewer's yeast
1/4 cup flour (I used white all-purpose but if you prefer whole wheat that would probably be fine---basically, it is just a thickening agent)
1 tsp dry mustard (I'm sure a teaspoon of prepared would work fine as well)
1/8 tsp nutmeg (I like freshly grated but you can use what you have)
1 tsp paprika
2 cups plain soy milk
dash Tabasco
dash Worcestershire
1/2 tsp salt

Shake the jar well until there are no lumps. I actually had a few so I strained the liquid through a seive. You can also whisk everything in a bowl. Ordinarily, I make a roux for a sauce like this but I didn't trust the yeast to mix properly in a roux. I wouldn't risk it.

Add this mixture to the onions and garlic and cook over medium heat stirring with a whisk until the sauce is thickened. If it looks too thick, add some more soy milk and stir some more. This was actually the case for me. I think I probably added closer to 1/3 cup flour than 1/4 cup. It isn't a big deal anyway since this isn't a particularly delicate sauce.

Add the rice to the sauce along with a can of beans (or an equal amount of home cooked dry beans). I used cannellini but kidney beans would work as well. I just poured the different elements into a large rectangular Pyrex baking dish and mixed in that. Finally I added some broccoli (a bit past it's prime and in need of using up) which I chopped pretty small. I felt it needed a bit more to fill the dish so I added the remainder of a bag of frozen peas and carrots mix. My 'fridge and cupboards are pretty bare :D.

I baked the whole concoction in a 350º oven for 30 minutes.

Out of my three kids, ages 16, 18, and 19, my two younger kids enjoyed it (son proclaimed it "delicious") and my oldest wasn't quite sure. At first I thought it was a bit strange but I kept going back for another bite and I wound up eating two good sized servings. My husband tried it and thought it was tasty and was happy to eat it as a side-dish with a couple of eggs and a corn pancake I made from the last bit of this afternoon's batter. He has been trying to eat healthier at work and cut his portions down so he was pretty hungry.

My youngest daughter added raisins to her second serving. It definitely had a curry taste and raisins seemed appropriate. She tells me it was really good with raisins. I think chick peas would probably be a good addition.

The nice thing is it was a very low-fat recipe high in protein and fiber as well as iron and lots of other good stuff from the brewer's yeast. Also, it looked pretty. I don't know what the nutritional break-down is but I didn't worry to much about it. I did check to make sure the 1/2 cup of brewer's yeast wasn't harmful. It turned out I probably could have added more since a serving size is two tablespoons which breaks down to less than a whole serving per person when feeding five people.