Herby Vegetable Gratin

Sometimes veggies need a little something to perk them up. I can get into a stir fry rut, grabbing all available vegetables from the fridge and cracking open the soy sauce.  I had a nice piece of white fish to cook for dinner and fancied something herby to go with it. I had some leftover cream in the fridge and so the gratin came to be. These quantities are very loose – more veggies, less sauce if you don’t like the creamy sauce but still want the taste, or you can ramp up the cream if you are so inclined. Use whatever vegetables you have around. I had a glut of carrots and courgettes. The sauce won’t thicken very much, unless you use some potatoes, but the vegetables stay moist, with a little bite to them, and the herby sauce is great with fish.

What you need: (This served two of us with a little left over)

1 courgette

2 carrots

1 onion, halved and finely sliced

2 – 3 cubes of frozen spinach, defrosted

150ml cream (or add some creme fraiche to lower the calories – I used about 100ml milk and 50ml creme fraiche)

1 tsp dried thyme (or your favourite herb)

100ml white wine or vegetable stock

some cheese of your choice to grate over the top

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 180C and locate an ovenproof dish. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and throw in the sliced onions. If you are using frozen spinach, pop on the kettle. Pour some boiling water over the spinach and cover. Alternatively, place in a bowl with a little water and microwave for 2 – 3 minutes.

While the onion is cooking, finely slice the carrot and courgette.

You could really use whatever veg you happen to have here. Butternut squash, parsnips, turnips, potatoes could all be thrown in. Pour 150ml of cream or a mixture of cream and creme fraiche into a jug.

Season well with sea salt and black pepper and add the thyme. Stir and set aside.

By now the onions will have softened and will be starting to brown around the edges.

Add the defrosted spinach to the pan and heat through (2-3 minutes).

Add the wine or stock now along with the cream mixture. Allow to simmer gently while you start to assemble the gratin.

Arrange the carrots and courgettes in a single layer along the bottom of an ovenproof dish.

Add a layer of the spinach and onion mixture on top.

Continue with another layer of vegetables, but changing the order of the rows so a row of courgettes now lies above a row of carrots and vice versa and cover with a layer of spinach and onions. Repeat until you use up all the vegetables (I got three vegetable layers in this dish)

and finish with the last of the onion and spinach mix. Pour any creamy sauce remaining in the pan over the top and grate some cheese – I used cheddar.

Pop it into the oven and cook for about 50 minutes to one hour. The top will be browned and crispy and the vegetables will still have a bit of a bite to them.

Serve!

This keeps really well (wait until cooled and pop in the fridge). In fact the lovely herbyness had intensified on day two. Mmmm.