How long to cook the vegetarian version?

I am making this (delish) recipe for a small dinner party: https://food52.com/recipes...
I've made it for groups before, and I just double the recipe, cook it for a bit longer (about 2 hours total), and it comes out great.
This time one of my guests is vegetarian - I figure I can make a separate version of the dish without the chicken and add some tofu. So I'll be cooking two pans of chicken, and one pan of my veggie version.
My question is: when should the vegetarian version go in the oven and for how long? Should it go in with the chicken, or later? Thanks!

elissamara
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9 Comments

creamtea
creamtea July 20, 2016
I meant to type Yukon Gold "potatoes" not tomatoes.
 
creamtea
creamtea July 20, 2016
Elissamara, this was sounding like such a good idea I tried it out last night. I didn't follow the recipe really,--lazy (no brown sugar, harrissa, mayonnaise, no marinating) just a simplified version with lemon juice, salt, pepper, potatoes, shallots (you can use onions), garlic, 3 chopped tomatoes from a can I had already opened (I had planned to make spaghetti sauce, changed my mind) but you could also use fresh. I used waxy Yukon Gold tomatoes. I added the canned chickpeas after maybe 30-40 minutes to prevent their becoming mushy. I covered the baking pan with foil, baked until tender. Really delicious and easy pantry dinner.
 
Nancy
Nancy July 20, 2016
Lisanne -
Agree recipe sounded delicious, nice to have report :)
Now that you've made it, and thinking of a company dinner, which if any of the additions - onions, cauliflower, toasted nuts, your own ideas - would you add?
 
elissamara
elissamara July 19, 2016
Thanks everyone! Now the vegetarian version of this dish (minus the bland tofu, of course) is sounding better than the chicken one!
 
PHIL
PHIL July 19, 2016
you could make thick cauliflower steak slices to mix in also. that would make for a nice presentation. Good luck.
 
creamtea
creamtea July 19, 2016
I agree with Phil, Nancy and Valhalla. Tofu's unnecessary to this dish. It seems out of place and won't contribute to the dish. Just keep a chicken-less portion separated from the main portion. If you want to add something like cauliflower, that would work. If you wanted to add some wedges or slices of onion to compensate for the depth of flavor that the chicken would normally bring, I think that could work too.
 
Valhalla
Valhalla July 19, 2016
30 year vegetarian here. Don't make it tough on yourself. If someone served me a gorgeous stew of potatoes and chickpea flavored with harissa, I would be plenty pleased and not feel one bit slighted. I am a little weird about protein combining--beans are plenty, so I feel the tofu is superfluous.
 
PHIL
PHIL July 19, 2016
I agree with Nancy , tofu might not be the best choice, The dish looks a bit monotone, Why not add some color with broccoli and/ or carrots or some nice big pieces of cauliflower? The other guests might like the vegetables also so I would make extra, they'll make good leftovers.
 
Nancy
Nancy July 18, 2016
A large part of the flavor here comes from cooking the sauce a long time.

To answer your question, the vegetarian version for roughly the same length of time, to develop the sauce, and add the tofu for the last quarter to half hour.

For another idea (from someone who spent more than 20 years as a vegetarian) and didn't develop a big taste for tofu, the dish sounds complex and substantial as it is - both in amount of protein and textures.
Maybe make for the vegetarian guest by just omitting the chicken. If that seems too little, add some more of each garbanzos, potatoes and yogurt. Maybe garnish with some toasted nuts to replace the crunchy texture of the chicken skin.
 
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