Cheesy Vegan Christmas Morning Strata
Happy holidays my friends! I hope the season is treating you well. Despite things being pretty crazy in these last few weeks of the year, I had to carve out some time to share this decadent breakfast strata before the holidays fly by. In case you are confused, yes, this is way outside of my normal colorful, healthy fare. I often get asked if I ever “cheat”, so this is proof that I do very occasionally enjoy a dish without a vegetable in sight. So enjoy this departure from the normal rainbow of farmers market goodies, and know I’ll be back soon with something to balance this cheesy beast of a breakfast!
For longer than I can remember, my mom has made Christmas morning strata. A recipe out of an old cookbook, I’m sure it has many variations from family to family. Once a year, mom would prepare the layers of white bread, sausage, cheese and egg mixture on Christmas Eve to sit in the refrigerator overnight. Always one with regular sausage and one with spicy for dad. Once everyone started stirring the next morning, she’d pop them in the oven to bake. Even after we all moved out of the house, she still makes this for Christmas. It might just get eaten for brunch instead of breakfast.
After cutting out the animal products from my diet over eight years ago, I haven’t had a bite of this since. While I never go hungry on the holiday morning, this year I decided I wanted to give a vegan version of this family holiday staple a try! At this point, you can make just about any recipe vegan. The plant-based meats abound, vegan cheese has improved leaps and bounds, and there are even more and more egg-less “eggs.” My parents were curious how this would come out since they have dramatically cut down on their consumption of animal products in the last few years to improve their health.
The verdict–it was just as decadent, if not more, than I remembered it being! The original I recall binding together a bit more, while mine stayed just a bit looser. It kept it from drying out at all and helped the vegan cheese melt even more. You can see the shreds still held their shape a bit on the top, but it was still totally gooey and melty underneath. I was afraid when I first cut into it that it was too wet in the center, though it turned out to be just fine when I scooped out a piece. If you cook it the day before and reheat it the next day it will firm up even more.
The taste–spot on. I think I may add mushrooms in with the sausage when I make it for Christmas. My test batch I wanted to keep as close to the original as possible just to see how it would turn out, though!
You can easily add some other vegetables in with the sausage mixture to add at least a smidgeon of nutrition to this, but besides mushrooms or maybe some caramelized onions I probably won’t mess with this much. The nostalgia is as much the joy of eating this as the savory blend of flavors. If I changed it too much, it just wouldn’t be the same. However, you can easily change up the type of vegan cheese you use or even the sausage. I’ll share what I used for this one in the ingredient list in case you want to replicate it as is!
Cheesy Vegan Christmas Morning Strata
Ingredients
- 3-5 slices sourdough bread or other crusty, chewy bread *My sourdough slices were fairly large, you may need more or less to cover the bottom of your dish.
- 1 14-ounce package vegan ground sausage *I used Impossible Savory
- 2 teaspoons stone-ground mustard
- 1 8-ounce package shredded vegan cheese *I used Violife Cheddar
- 1 12-ounce bottle JUST Egg
- 1/2 cup plain, unsweetened oat milk or other unsweetened plant milk
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Lightly oil a 9×9-inch or 11×7-inch casserole dish. Place your slices of bread in the bottom, cutting in half or tearing up as needed to fill the bottom of the dish in one layer.
- Place a medium skillet on the stovetop to warm over medium heat. Add your vegan sausage and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring to break up and warm through. Remove from the heat and stir in the mustard.
- Scoop the sausage out of the pan to layer on top of the bread in the casserole dish. Next, sprinkle the vegan cheese over top.
- Whisk together the remaining ingredients (JUST Egg through the pepper), then pour over top of the cheese, sausage and bread. Cover and let rest in the refrigerator overnight.
- In the morning, remove the casserole from the refrigerator while you preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Uncover and bake for about 50 minutes, or until the edges are bubbling and just starting to brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing and serving.
This one is not a regular in the meal prep rotation, but if it’s a hit with everyone else for Christmas–it may be an annual treat! I don’t often eat the plant-based meats or cheeses often, nor the eggs, but they were perfect to recreate a slice of holiday memories to enjoy for a day. For New Year’s it will be back to the beans and greens for the next holiday tradition…
