Savory Bread Pudding with Chick Pea Tempeh Breakfast Sausage

Bread pudding is always so nice. It sounds so hard to make, but it’s really not. It is economical, can be made with any bread, any milk or milk substitute, add veggies, add cheese or meat, make it sweet, sweeten it with maple syrup…add fruit. It will not fail you, and it keeps your tummy full while staying on our CKD eating plan. Perfect!

https://youtu.be/UvQvPc-J0WY?si=PvZ_1ucsHaF6MniJ

Bread Pudding is just comforting. I am not listing the counts for my CKD and Dash Buddies on this because the count will change depending upon the type of bread you use, the type of milk or milk substitute you use, and also the type of meat you use - if you opt to use any at all. The thing to remember is that it's 6 eggs to 2 cups of milk for 9 servings. Whether you sweeten this with your favorite sweetener, add fruit or preserves, or you make it savory with veggies and cheese, the custard portion remains the same. Here's what I used for the video.

350 degree preheated oven, greased 9 x 13 pan. Serves 9.

4 cups of cubed, preferably stale bread, and the heavier the bread, the better the pudding - also, leftover hamburger and hotdog buns work well, but it takes a lot of them.

6 eggs

2 cups of milk or milk substitute

1 cup of shredded cheese

1 medium onion

7 ounces of chick pea tempeh breakfast sausage

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion (about a cup)

2 cloves of garlic - *garlic as you wanna garlic!

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary or 1/2 tablespoon dried rosemary

In a large bowl, add your milk, eggs, cheese, and spices and whisk them together, then add in your cubed bread and mix to coat. Allow the bread mixture to soak for at least 15 minutes. An hour is better and overnight is the best. Then, put the oil in a skillet and heat it up on medium heat. Add in your onions and sauté until soft. Add in the garlic (sliced or minced, your choice) along with the sausage if you are using it and cook until the sausage is cooked through. If you are not using sausage, cook just until the onions start to get translucent. Add the onion mixture to the bread mixture and give it a quick mix. Pour the mixture into a greased 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350 degrees. You will know the bread pudding is done when you tap the side of the pan and the pudding shakes but does not wobble. I bake mine for 30 minutes, give it a check, and if it's not done, I put it in for 10 minutes and check it again. Once done, allow it to sit out for 10-15 minutes. This dish is best served warm and not hot. Enjoy!

Here's a nice breakfast sausage seasoning recipe. This makes enough to season 1 pound of meat - and you can use whatever ground meat you like. It works exceptionally well with chicken, turkey and pork. In the video, I used chick pea tempeh because it is lower in potassium, phosphorus, and protien. If you opt for the tempeh, remember that it comes in 7 ounce packages, so you will need cut the recipe in half or use two packages of tempeh. Whichever you choose, you can portion it out into servings and freeze it to use later!

Recipe

1 1/2 teaspoon of sage

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 1/2 teaspoon of thyme

1 teaspoon of paprika

1/4 teaspoon of allspice (or nutmeg if you prefer)

1 clove of garlic

1 1/2 teaspoon packed brown sugar (or maple syrup, or molasses...yummm)

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Place your meat or tempeh in a bowl (or a sealable baggie). Add in the spices and munch them all together. You can use it straight away, but it's better if you let it flavor-meld for about an hour, overnight is even better!