Recipe of the Week

 It's that time of week again; time to share your Recipe of the Week with us! Link Up rules are as follows; your post must be a recipe, this is not a regular blog hop! Please try to include one of my buttons for the Recipe of the Week. Please link the permalink to your actual post, just not your home page. The link up is open from Sunday until Tuesday night at 11:59pm.

This week I am sharing a recipe from the cookbook Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker.  My friend Sarah, over at Sarah's Heart's Home gave me this cookbook when we were visiting her last week and I was very anxious to try a recipe! I needed a recipe for this past week when my parent's came over for dinner. So I tried out the following recipe on them. The hubby didn't eat it, he doesn't like too many vegetables. However my mom really liked it. Dad said it was "okay." haha

Savory Vegetable Bread Pudding

2 Tb. olive oil
1 medium size yellow onion, chopped
1/2 small red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium sized carrot, shredded
1 small zucchini, shredded
4 ounces white mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
15.5 ounce can of navy or other white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups of vegetable stock
1 1/2 tsp of Dijon mustard
1 tsp. minced fresh savory leaves (I didn't have this, so I used dried Italian seasoning)
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (I substituted with red pepper flakes)
4 ounces mozzarella cheese or soy mozzarella, shredded
1 loaf of Italian bread, sliced

Directions.
1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, cover and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the bell pepper, carrot, zucchini, mushrooms and garlic; season with salt and pepper to taste, and cook until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.

2. In a food processor or blender, combine the beans, stock, mustard, savory, salt, and cayenne and process until smooth. Stir into the sauteed vegetables, then stir in the cheese.

3. Cut the bread slices into small pieces and arrange about one third of the loaf in the bottom of a 4-6 quart slow cooker. Pour about one-third of the vegetable mixture over the bread, using a fork to distribute the vegetables evenly. Repeat with a second layer of bread, followed by a second layer of the vegetable mixture. Top with the remaining bread, pressing down gently to eliminate air pockets. Pour on the remaining vegetable mixture, spreading it evenly over the top layer of the bread. Cover and cook on Low for 4 to 5 hours.

I added a little extra water just to make sure that the bread had enough liquid. I also added some oil to the bottom of the slow cooker just to make sure things didn't stick. Overall, I liked it, just would have added a little more salt  I think.

Enjoy!

Other Sunday Blog Hops

 

Enjoy what you read here at Golden Reflections? Please vote once daily over at Picket Fence Blogs, just click on the button below! Thanks!