Roasted Vegetables Baked in Golden Batter

Come spring and summer, I crave colorful and bright dishes incorporating all sorts of vegetables. This dish is abundant with them, all bursting with color. Here, red peppers, yellow peppers, red onions, zucchini, and eggplant are first roasted then baked to  golden perfection under a blanket of milky batter that is poured on their tops. This deliciousness is then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and fresh herbs. Delicious! This is spring and summer right there, on your plate.

I like to serve this bake as an appetizer or just as a light side dish to go with carnivorous main dishes. Serve as you like.


Roasted Vegetables Baked in Golden Batter
Adapted from One-Pot, Slow-Pot and Clay-Pot Cooking, by Jenni Fleetwood

I have adjusted the amounts of ingredients in the recipe and generously tweaked the directions and added my own notes. If you do not have zucchini, you can use eggplants instead, or vice versa. No yellow bell peppers? Use orange instead.

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 small eggplant, trimmed, halved and thickly sliced
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups milk
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves or 2 teaspoons dried
1 red onion
2 medium zucchini (you can substitute with eggplants if not available)
1 red bell pepper
1  yellow bell pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Fresh herbs of choice, to garnish (I used baby parsley from my garden)

Directions:

Prepare the batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, flour, milk and thyme, salt and pepper to taste, until you obtain smooth paste with no lumps. Place the batter in a cool place until needed.

Place the eggplant in a colander and sprinkle generously with salt. Leave aside for 10  minutes to allow the bitter juices to extract. Rinse well and pat dry on paper towels.

Heat the oven to 400F (205C).

Cut the onion into thin wedges. Slice the zucchini. Seed and quarter the peppers. Place all the vegetables on a 13 X 10-inch  (33 cm X 25 cm) baking pan. Pour the olive oil on top. Toss with your hands to coat the vegetables with oil. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until the vegetables are slightly roasted.

Remove from the oven. Give the milky batter enough whisk, then pour it over the vegetables and return to the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until the batter is slightly puffed up and golden and the edges are crisp. Remove from the oven. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and fresh herbs. Allow to cool slightly. Cut into squares. Use a sturdy spatula to release the squares from the pan as they are rather fragile.  Serve warm or at room temperature.


17 Comments

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  1. Oh it looks so colourful and appealing Farida!

  2. That looks so amazing! I’m stoked to try making it — farmer’s market, here I come!

  3. Yum, this looks so tasty! Seems like a great way to showcase fresh produce – love it!

  4. dibi yanib))))

  5. YUM! Love the colors – this looks so great!

    New to your blog; happy I found you!

    Mary xo
    Delightful Bitefuls

  6. Aha ,men de bu reseptin sadesinden hazirlayiram.Mexico receipedi.chox lezzetli alinir.teshekkur receipe uchun.sevdiyim terevezlerdi her biri.belelikle naharim daha dadli olacaq sayenizde 😉 <3

  7. What a beautiful dish! I love how you put so many kinds of vegetables and it’s very pretty & nutritious! It’s very interesting way of cooking – almost look like bread but you pour the batter on top later. I’m not sure if this is common dish, but I think it’s very creative way of cooking. 🙂

  8. Ooh! I just called the whole family and a friend visiting over to the screen to peek! What an awesome idea Farida…and you make it all look so delish with your food photos. My head is swirling with ideas of the veggies I love to roast during the holidays with a side of yorkshire pudding…can you imagine that? I’m drooling! Thanks for the inspiration!

  9. Delicious-looking type of frittata.

  10. Fari, I don’t think you could’ve packed more color or flavor into this awesome dish!

  11. It looks so good and so appetising! It goes straights to my favourites!
    Thanks for sharing!

    Yolanda

  12. Del-i-cious!! Thanks.

  13. This is absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing your recipies

  14. Hi, thanks for the great recipe!
    I made this today to go with some lamb chops with balsamic reduction (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/lamb-chops-with-balsamic-reduction/detail.aspx). I roast vegetables very often, usually with olive oil, salt, pepper and some seasonings (italian herbs or moroccan herbs etc.). I decided to try your version with the batter to make a more filling side dish, since I forgot to pick up the cous cous :(. I added some basil along with the thyme, and topped it with mozzarella cheese to let it melt in the oven for a few minutes.

    Anyway, it was delicious! The problem I encountered however was that the batter was too soft on the inside, and didn’t seem to crisp up. However, the top and bottom was beginning to burn and my veggies were definitely over-roasted so I had to take them out and serve as they were. Any suggestions to why this happened? Maybe next time I should reduce the temperature?

  15. KL – Thank you for trying the recipe. Maybe adjust the temperature nex time. Hope it helps. Enjoy! I should try lamb chops with balsamic reduction:) Sounds delicious!

  16. Very disappointed in this recipe. Very wet. Just disappointing.

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