Polenta with Vegan Tomato and Sausage Sauce
1 pound ground vegan sausage (I use Gimmie Lean brand)
olive oil, as needed
1/3 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 pound can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon pepper
18 ounces prepared polenta
1 cup grated vegan mozzarella ( I use Veganrella)
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Brown sausage substitute in pan with olive oil.
2. Add onion, garlic, tomato paste, tomatoes, vegan sugar, salt, oregano and pepper. Stir. Bring mixture to boil, cover, reduce heat, simmer about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Cut polenta in 16 1/2 slices. Arrange polenta in 2 quart baking dish. Pour sauce over polenta slices, and sprinkle with vegan cheese.
4. Cover baking dish with tin foil. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum! ;d I didn't have any pre-made sausage, so I used TVP granuales, which turned out great! 1 cup of TVP + 1 cup boiling water, let sit 5-10 min, then added it to the tomato sauce and simmered for 30 min like the recipe suggests, except I added about 3/4 cup extra water to make things nice and saucy before I simmered. This made enough for the polenta, plus plenty extra for another meal. I'm going to try it on lasagna! :D
I gave this recipe 4 stars, because it was a good base recipe, but I tweaked it a LOT, and I think maybe the original recipe might have been a bit boring had I not. Here are my changes: I used one large onion (more than 1/3 cup), 6 cloves of garlic, only 1/2 tsp salt, extra oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, two shakes of nutmeg, a handful of halved green olives, a handful of julienned sundried tomatoes, and 1 cup of veggie broth. I had intended to follow the recipe exactly, but I was confused as to why it called for a can of tomato paste but no liquid. It was extremely dry until I added the broth. I only simmered it for a few minutes; I think 30 minutes is unnecessary. I used Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella (which I think is better than VeganRella, but that is subjective). With all of those changes, it was really good, and I will make it that way in the future.
i made this for a party last night. everyone liked it a lot, though a few referred to it as 'lasagna'.. could use some more vegetable ingredients (mushrooms would be good)