Weekend Brunch: Round 1: Caramelized Onion & Sweet Potato Frittata

I don’t know about you guys but my weekend was a total laze fest. Cold weather, sick husband and a total lack of motivation was the perfect trifecta for a pj weekend, yep, all pj’s, all the time. T’was glorious.  In my defense, I did manage to leave the house once to get groceries, which is why I was able to create a few tasty items in between time spent snuggled up on the couch. Which reminds me, never go to the grocery store on a Saturday, that place turns into all-consuming hell hole, ugh, seriously, but I digress.

I’ve been following Allysia’s weekly brunch happenings since she started them, and after 29 of her posts it finely donned on me that, hey! I should make brunch a regular Sunday occurrence too! Sure I still get together with friends from time to time but that ain’t too frequently and I’ve been missing the monthly vegan brunches we used to hold; as I’ve said before, breakfast/brunch is my favorite meal but I usually put little to no effort on making stuff at home. We didn’t do too many of the vegan brunches and they ended pretty quick due to numerous reasons, but at the time I had created a long list of brunch recipes so that I was never left baffled by what to make. There are some old standbys (tofu bacon) but there are also some more interesting ideas I’ve always wanted to try, so hopefully I can make this brunch thing a regular occurrence.

Since receiving a new blender for Christmas, green smoothies have once again taken the place of my morning oatmeal. Normally I can’t stand drinking smoothies for breakfast during winter, but I’ve come up with a combo that I can’t seem to get sick of and I’ve have had one every day since boxing day. I can’t eat raw bananas, which is a pain in the ass since it seems like every smoothie recipe on the face of the planet has banana in it *shakes fist at banana*, so right now my concoction consists of spinach, orange, frozen mango, frozen raspberries and some coconut almond milk (looove this stuff!). I know I’ll probably get sick of it at some point, so if you happen to have any combos you like, feel free give them a shout out, I’d love to hear them As much as I enjoy downing liquefied greens (I’m not even saying that sarcastically), it doesn’t leave much to the imagination, and I need something more exciting to consume as I chug back my multiple cups of fancy ‘for weekends only’ coffee. So to kick off my ever so unoriginal Sunday brunch adventure, I got all sophisticated and made a frittata.

Mmm, just look at that….ok, so it tasted way better than it looks, as it turns out, melted Daiya cheese isn’t the most appetizing looking thing. Hidden to the side was some toast that completed the brunch experience. I probably could have gone all out and made potatoes and sausage and stuff but as I already mentioned, I was pretty lazy this weekend. I was craving sweet potatoes like a lunatic, so it only made sense to add some to the eggy frittata batter and let’s face it, caramelized onions could make an old sweaty sock taste good. Now that I’ve got you thinking about sweaty socks (yum, stanky cotton), here’s the recipe!

Caramelized Onion & Sweet Potato Frittata
Makes one 9″ frittata

Ingredients:

• 1 large sweet potato (about 13 oz), peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 2 large onions (about 3 cups), sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pkg (12.3 oz) extra firm silken tofu
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/4 cup chickpea flour
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon black salt
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• 1 1/2 cups shredded vegan cheese (mozza or cheddar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and lightly spray a 9” pie pan with cooking oil.

Add oil to a large frying pan or cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and let them cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and turn heat to medium-low. Let the onions cook, stirring rarely, until they are a deep golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes. Season with additional salt and pepper, remove from pan and let cool.

In a medium bowl, toss sweet potato with a small amount of oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread out on a baking pan and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Turn oven down to 350 degrees F.
In a food processor, combine the silken tofu, nutritional yeast, chickpea flour, cornstarch, onion powder, turmeric and black salt. Puree until completely smooth. Pour into a large bowl and add the garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper, and mix together.  Gently mix in the sweet potatoes, onions and 1 cup of cheese.

Pour into the prepared pie pan, evening out the top. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle top with remaining cheese, bake for 20 minutes more.

Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

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