kale and red onion panade

I have wanted to make a panade ever since I saw it on What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway? aka veganmenu.blogspot.com. They don't give an exact recipe but mention that their recipe is based off of Judy Rogers', The Zuni Cookbook. If you Google "Judy Rogers panade", you get almost 60,000 results. I really prefer to work from a recipe when I'm making something I've never tried before, but there were so many variations I kind of had to make mine up as I went along. I used a post from Sweet Napa as guidance. I love her tip on how to use the leftovers!

Panade is very versatile, you can use whatever veggies and cheese you prefer. The recipe takes a long time so it's something to do when you've got a free afternoon. I decided to slow cook it for three hours, but you can bake it in as quickly as an hour and half.

Ingredients:
2 red onions, diced
6 cloves garlic, slivered
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 bunch kale, stems removed and ripped roughly
6 pieces sun dried tomatoes, slivered
10 ounces day old chewy bread, I used Bakers of Paris ciabatta
2 and 1/4 cups vegetable stock
2 cups, loosely packed, shredded Fontina cheese
salt and pepper to taste (red pepper flakes and Italian seasoning too, if you like!)

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. *see note below.

Over medium high heat, heat up the olive oil in a sauce pan and add the onions. Cook until slightly translucent, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and a few pinches of salt, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Onions should be soft and tender. Set aside in a small bowl to cool slightly.

Add the kale and tomatoes to the sauce pan and cook until the kale is slightly wilted, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, toss the bread with 1/4 cup of stock and black pepper to taste.

In a two-quart casserole dish, layer half the onions in the bottom of the dish, then add a layer of bread, a layer of the kale and tomatoes, then season and cover with 1 cup of cheese. Repeat with the remaining half of the ingredients, except the rest of the cheese, which will be added close to the end. Pack the ingredients down a bit, if necessary.

Fill dish with vegetable stock, until it covers about 3/4 of the depth. Loosely cover the dish with foil and also place a piece of foil on the rack below to catch any drips. Bake for 3 hours. *note: If you do not have, or wish to wait, three hours; instead preheat your oven to 325 and bake for one and half hours.

During the last 15 minutes, remove the foil from the panade and raise the temp to 375 degrees. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and bake for the remaining 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden brown.