Zucchini, Basil, and Parmesan Egg Bake

Yesterday I picked up my share of vegetables from my CSA, Frog Bottom Farm. In it was two pounds of mixed summer squash (I picked zucchini, barq squash, and beautiful, bi-colored zephyr squash), four beets (with tops still attached), five really long spring onions, a cucumber, a bag of arugula, and a bag of basil leaves.

I decided to use some of the squash, green onions, and basil in a baked egg dish that turned out really well. I had some of the leftovers this morning for breakfast, and I can confirm that baked egg type dishes do, in fact, reheat nicely!

Zucchini, Basil, and Parmesan Egg Bake

It’s sort of like an eggy lasagna.

Recipe for Zucchini, Basil, and Parmesan Egg Bake (Serves 4, more or less):

What you need:

• 8 eggs (preferably cage-free)
• 3-4 slices whole wheat bread
• 1 pound zucchini or summer squash, sliced thinly
• 2-3 green onions, sliced
• 1 handful fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips
• 1 roasted red bell pepper (jarred works just fine), sliced into strips
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste

How to do it:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat 1 Tbsp. of the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the zucchini and saute until the zucchini is cooked through and lightly brown around the edges.
2. Use the remaining 1 Tbsp. of oil to grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Beat the eggs in a bowl. Add salt, pepper, the green onions, the basil, and half of the parmesan cheese.
3. Arrange the slices of bread in the pan so that the bottom of the pan is covered by a layer of bread. When the zucchini is cooked, layer the zucchini and roasted red bell peppers on top of the bread. Pour the egg-basil-onion-parmesan mixture over everything, allowing the egg to soak down through the bottom layers. Sprinkle the rest of the parmesan cheese on top.
4. Bake at 375 degrees until the eggs are set and the cheese is melted. For me, this took around 25 minutes. Let the dish cool slightly, then slice into squares and serve hot.

When it looks like this, it's done!

This dish would also be delicious with caramelized onions, but I was fresh out of those. A nice side dish would be a green salad. We ate ours and then gorged ourselves on local strawberries and blueberries that we bought at the farmers’ market where we go to pick up our weekly CSA veggies, which is held every Saturday at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia. If you can bring yourself to get up early on a Saturday, I heartily recommend the St. Stephen’s Farmers’ Market!

Southern Vegetarian Meal

This meal was delicious! It consisted of vegetarian sloppy joes, using beans and veggies instead of meat with a homemade sauce, homemade corn bread, and cooked greens (leftover from a takeout barbecue meal).

Southern Vegetarian Meal

The recipe for the sloppy joe beans was modified from a Rachael Ray recipe for “Sloppy Veg-Head Joes.” I added different veggies, like carrots and celery, a can of red kidney beans, and a couple tablespoons of natural ketchup (no high-fructose corn syrup!) instead of the brown sugar. It came out very tasty and went great with the cornbread.

The cornbread was a modified version of Mark Bittman’s recipe for cornbread. I used plain lowfat yogurt instead of buttermilk, and instead of sugar, I used three tablespoons of maple syrup to make maple cornbread. I use variations of Bittman’s cornbread all the time. It’s easy, relatively healthy, and most importantly, it’s delicious. You can find Mark Bittman’s recipe for good old fashioned cornbread here, on his website.

Maple Cornbread

I’ve been experimenting with this cornbread recipe ever since I made it the first time. Vegetable additions like sliced green onions, fresh cooked corn kernels, or shredded zucchini all work well.