Vegan potato, spinach, and fish finger casserole with “egg”
Does anyone remember the Mini Playback Show? If our recipe today were a contestant, potatoes, spinach, and "fish fingers" would choose a cool cheesy costume with Marijke Amado and emerge from the magic ball as a casserole.
- For the casserole:
- 1 kg (mainly) waxy potatoes
- 6 vegan frozen fish fingers
- 400g frozen spinach (portioned)
- 180g vegan shredded cheese
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Salt
- Dill for serving
- For the sauce:
- 4 EL vegane Butter
- 4 EL Mehl
- 250 ml vegan cooking cream
- 250 ml plant-based milk
- 2 EL Senf
- 5 g fresh dill
- 1 tbsp yeast flakes
- 1 lemon (zest and juice)
- Salt
- Pfeffer
- Nutmeg
- For the vegan egg:
- 400 g Natural tofu
- 1 tbsp chickpea flour
- 2 tbsp yeast flakes
- 150 ml plant-based milk
- 100 ml water
- Black Salt
- Pfeffer
- Turmeric
- Peel the potatoes and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Place them in a pot, cover with cold water, add salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and parboil the potato pieces for about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Melt the vegan butter in a small saucepan. Whisk in the flour thoroughly to prevent lumps from forming. Then pour in the vegan cream and plant-based milk and whisk well. Add the mustard, nutritional yeast, and the zest and juice of one lemon. Finely chop the dill and stir it in. Finally, season the sauce with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (convection). Quarter the vegan fish sticks so they are also small pieces. Place the pre-cooked potatoes in a casserole dish, pour over the sauce, and mix. Then add the frozen spinach and the chopped vegan fish sticks, distributing them among the potato pieces. Mix the vegan shredded cheese with a little olive oil and then sprinkle it over the casserole.
- Bake the casserole at 200 °C (convection oven) for approximately 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, for the vegan egg, combine firm tofu, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, plant-based milk, and water in a tall container and blend thoroughly. Season generously with kala namak and pepper. Then, place two tablespoons of the mixture into a small bowl and color it yellow with turmeric.
- Carefully remove the casserole from the oven and use the back of a spoon to make small indentations in the top. Distribute the vegan egg mixture into the indentations and place a small yellow dot in the center of each to represent the yolks. Bake for another 5–10 minutes until everything is cooked through and the vegan cheese layer is melted and golden brown.
- Let the casserole cool briefly, sprinkle with dill and, if desired, sprinkle some more Kala Namak over the vegan eggs.
Anyone unfamiliar with the show is probably completely confused right now, so here's an explanation: Today we're tossing the ever-popular combination of potatoes, spinach, and vegan fish fingers into a casserole dish, smothering it with a creamy dill-mustard sauce, and covering it all with vegan cheese. As a special treat, we're also adding tofu eggs to the mix. Sounds adventurous, but to us, it tastes like pure childhood nostalgia.
We already have a recipe for the "classic version" on the blog, of course – there you'll find mashed potatoes and a vegan fried egg on the plate. So why a casserole now? Quite simply: because it's fun!
What you should prepare: On the one hand, this casserole is quite convenient, as the frozen spinach and vegan fish sticks are simply tossed into the baking dish. Theoretically, you could add the thinly sliced potatoes raw, but I preferred larger pieces, so you should parboil them for a few minutes. The sauce should also be prepared briefly in a saucepan – alternatively, you could simply pour a carton of vegan cream over everything. But that was too bland for me, and the sauce didn't have the consistency I wanted for this casserole.
Ideas for the vegan eggs on the casserole: The vegan eggs on the casserole are optional – you could leave them out. I experimented a lot with them during the test cooking. One option was to cut firm tofu into large chunks and season it with kala namak – but in the end, I found that a bit bland. Option 2 was the vegan "eggs" from our layered salad, but they also didn't have enough flavor for me in the casserole. The vegan fried eggs from our "classic recipe" could also be prepared separately and only added after baking – but that seemed too complicated. The best option for me was to pre-bake the casserole and, in the meantime, blend a thick mixture based on firm tofu, a small portion of which is colored yellow with turmeric. This mixture is then placed in small indentations on top of the casserole and baked for a few more minutes. Ultimately, you can of course decide for yourselves whether and in what form you want to add the vegan egg.
Is it okay to reheat spinach if you didn't finish a casserole? This question has been on our minds at the office, and perhaps you're wondering the same thing. A fact check by MDR (a German public broadcaster) states that it's safe – as long as the spinach is cooled down quickly after cooking and then stored in the refrigerator for no more than two days (source). Spinach experts like Iglo even say that it should be reheated no later than the next day – and to at least 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit). It shouldn't be reheated a second time (source).
So if you have any leftover casserole, don't put the dish in the oven until the next day, but wrap the remainder airtight and put it in the refrigerator to reheat and eat it the next day.
