Brunchin' it: white bean hash

I love to make brunch every weekend. A lot of people I know love to go out to brunch every weekend, but my father instilled in me a great love of the home cooked late-morning meal. I love to get creative with it, but usually I just love to cook good food while no one else is awake, and serve it with coffee when the house is just beginning to wake up. It's a ritual at our house, and it's one of the best ones we have.

My finished version

That said, sometimes I get really indecisive and can't figure out what to make (or am lacking ingredients). Yesterday morning was one of those. Now that I don't eat eggs anymore, being lazy about brunch has become a lot more difficult. I need to actually come up with creative, unique, but worthy of brunch vegan eats. Fortunately, I found this incredible white bean breakfast hash recipe yesterday after googling "white bean breakfast" (I had white beans, can you tell? And I wanted to see if other people used them in breakfasts). It had me drooling from the get-go. The only problem? It wasn't vegan in the slightest, and that is where my real interest was piqued, and my creativity engine got going. How to adjust it?

Well, here are the changes I made to the recipe:

• I used shallots instead of leeks, because I had shallots already (I used about 6 shallots)
• I added about 5 cloves of diced garlic 
• Instead of bacon? I used Bac'N Bits (I bought them this time, but next time I'm going to try making them per this awesome recipe I found on an internet search just now!)
• I added 6 diced mushrooms (mixture of white and crimini)
• I added 4 thinly sliced broccoli florets
• I eliminated the egg entirely
• I did add 1 teaspoon of Earth Balance butter to give it a hint of "buttery taste"
• Salt, Pepper & red pepper flakes were also added to taste. 

...looking back on this, I made some very extensive changes compared to the recipe I linked to, yet I still feel like I captured the essence of the dish. I cooked it the same way and was really thrilled with how it turned out: savory and really, really delicious. Once the fakin bits were a bit carmelized, you couldn't even tell they weren't real bacon, and the taste was outstanding! Scott really loved this dish and asked for more later in the day (a sure sign of success!). I served this hash with, ahem, hash browns (my favorite), which also turned out really well this time. It was a great brunch and was followed by a 1.5 hour long nap, and that, my friends, is the recipe for a perfect Sunday.

the finished product + a happy family (also: watching The Aquabats! Super Show during breakfast)