Have you ever wondered what to do with the small pieces of frozen veg like cauliflower and broccoli that aren’t small enough to throw away but too small to be put on a dinner plate as a side?
Bake………. or one should say, make a vegetable bake.
Hubby has a theory that I am eating too much pasta and therefore not getting enough fibre in my diet. I could agree to some extent, but the last time I had pasta was ten days ago and then ten days before that, so much as I love my tomato pastas, I have not exactly been having them every day. Also, my bakes are full of veg and I have been eating plenty of fruit too, but things were not moving naturally, hence the need for a little medicinal help.
(If anyone is remotely interested, the mountain moved yesterday.)
I would class this as a SW free dinner with an A allowance of 30g of cheese.
At the bottom of the frozen broccoli bag was quite a bit of shrapnel, so I fished that out, and added a chopped tomato, onion, peppers, a small potato which I diced into small pieces, and these.
May I present to you our first carrots……. EVER………
I added a little water, stock cube, Italian herbs and a clove of garlic then brought the whole lot to the boil and simmered until the veg was soft.
I drained off most of the liquid, put the mix in my individual dish, and covered it with cheese. Hubby had fish and wedges today, so they all went in the oven together and cooked for 30 minutes.
It wasn’t bad, but as with most veg only dishes, I find a lot of liquid is generated in the cooking process, even though I had drained the majority off beforehand. With my usual bakes, the pasta absorbs any excess, so the dish is quite firm when you serve it.
This was a bit sloppy underneath the topping, so I used the draining spoon to dish up and thus stop it doing the breast stroke on my plate.
It was definite improvement on my raffle prize three years ago which I haven’t made since, but I will have another go at this once I can determine how to stop the ‘floods’ and will garnish it with cherry tomatoes on top to give it a bit of colour. The picture was taken with my phone so looks a bit wishy washy when it actually wasn’t.
Your home grown carrots are beauties. As for the liquid in your bake, I wonder if a little flour or cornstarch would help. Funny I had the same issue you had this past week and also needed some assistance. I’ve also added more fibre and I am drinking more water as well.
I tried adding some cornflour once and it tasted a bit bland, but that could be because I don’t use salt. Now if I used a vegetable stock cube instead of chicken with a bit of flour, that might work because they tend to be more salty. Watch this space for my next attempt………….. !!!!
As for the other, I’m well hydrated and had plenty of fruit and veg in my diet. Hubby read that sometimes you can go too far the other way though. Just got to see what happens later today as I’ve had 2 sachets and will take a third tonight. Three was the magic number yesterday.
Keep well my friend.
You too Di.
😀
It looks very nice , when you say you drained it did you drain it completely. As there is probably enough water in the veg to cook it completely dry. Just a thought. 💜💜💜
I did that with the SW recipe and it wasn’t that good. All a Question of balance as the Moody Blues would say. I will try it again and they say practice makes perfect, well, ‘ish’. !!
You will find the solution, so to speak 💜
definitely!
💜
We found adding some cous cous to the mix often worked to thicken up things. Just a thought. I shall be prudent and not comment upon bodily functions.
ha! Thanks for the tip, and your consideration is appreciated!
I often make a baked veggie dish – very similar except I don’t cook the vegetables first – i just bake them without boiling. They generate less liquid and have a better (less mushy) texture… but it sometimes takes a little longer than 30 min. I also mix a couple tablespoons of instant potatoes in to hold it all together.
I use instant mash too so another suggestion worth remembering. Thank you