Bacon Vegducken

 

For Thanksgiving, I wanted to make a vegducken, which is the vegetarian version of a turkducken.  The only reason was because I wanted to make a vegetable dish.  I found a recipe, but after reviewing it, I didn't think it would have enough flavor for my liking.  I decided to change it up a bit and added bacon.  Here's my version.

Ingredients:

• 1 package bacon (12 ounces)
• 1 kabocha squash
• 1 zucchini
• 1 black beauty eggplant
• 1 package white mushrooms (8 ounces)
• 1 tsp chili flakes
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 eggs
• dash of salt
• scrunch of pepper
  
• 1 Tablespoon onion powder
• 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil for stuffing
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  

Instructions:

1. Chop up the bacon and pan fry until crispy.
2. Rinse all your veggies.
   
3. Trim ends of zucchini and eggplant, slice in half, remove centers, and reserve for stuffing.
4. Cut kabocha in half horizontally, remove seeds (trash or keep to make roasted pumpkin seeds later), cut out as much pumpkin flesh from the insides as much as possible, and reserve for stuffing.
5. Pulse veggie centers and mushrooms in a food processor until chopped well. (I also added some extra carrots and brussel sprouts I had laying around.)
6. To a big pan, add olive oil, chopped veggies, seasonings, and stir fry until done.
   
7. Combine breadcrumbs, nutritional yeast, and eggs to form a breadcrumb texture.  Add to veggies and mix well to finish your stuffing.
   
8. Melt butter in a saucepan. 
9. Spread butter on inside and outside of pumpkin.  Add stuffing. 
10. Add eggplant.  Add stuffing.
11. Add zucchini.  Add stuffing.
12. Continue the layers in reverse.
    
13. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1.75 - 2 hours.
14. Let cool for 20 minutes before cutting up.
    
15. Enjoy!

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