I rue today.. Carrot Au Gratin

Wasn't sure if Mom was going to stay for dinner after I picked her up from the airport so I wanted to make something gluten-free again just in case. 

As for fresh produce, I had carrots and 2 zucchini I bought for Henry's next taste test.  My first thought was this 'carrot au gratin' that a line cook and foodie made once on a farm I worked at in North Carolina.  I don't at all remember what he did but know it was baked carrot au gratin of some kind!  I thought this also worked well because I still had Tara's milk left in my fridge.  More milk and rue it is!

Au gratin to me, means a rue sauce with cheese!  Not sure if it is correct, but it works.  My next thought was, what for protein?  I had a package of tofu that needed used.  My mom always makes this delicious stuffed shells/lasagna type thing using tofu almost as the ricotta, or mixed with the ricotta?  Anyways, I decided it would be fine mixed in the rue sauce! 

People generally freak out when you even whisper the first syllable of  'tofu.'  However, it's worst offense is only lack of flavor.  Tofu has no taste, which is perfect because you can make it anything you want!  And there are so many different types that you can also make it the consistency you want.  Silken tofu would be perfect for this dish.  I had firm, that will work too.
Personally, when it comes to soy, I buy organic.  Two reasons:  I know it won't be genetically modified and I know it won't have hexane residue from protein isolation.

Like tofu, rue sauces are also nice in that you can choose your flavor.  You should add to the rue the flavor you want the dish to be.  I made my rue and added chopped fresh sage and fresh ground black pepper.  I love black pepper with cream dishes.
 I left it a little thicker this time because I knew the vegetables and tofu would give off some water.

I chopped my carrots and zucchini diagonally to increase the surface area.  Think of this as a type of super easy vegetable lasagna type thing...  I buttered the baking dish, just in case, and layered all the carrots in the bottom.  Put some tofu rue sauce over that then layered the zucchini slices on top.  I poured the rest of the tofu rue on and topped it off with sliced onions.  Make sure you oil the onions a little so they don't burn.

If  in doubt bake at 350 degrees.  Most things use this temperature.  I thought I'd go a little higher.  I think it was 370 or something.  I set the timer for 20 minutes to check on it.  It needed about 45 minutes total.

I toasted 2 pieces of ezekial bread and we ate the pretty little au gratin squares with our bread. :)   A salad and a baguette would be ideal (but I was done chopping vegetables and I didn't have lettuce anyways!).

Dine on!