Farmstand Bread Pudding

You know the absolute best part about summer? Fresh local produce. And because a lot of the local farms start their plants in greenhouses well before the snow melts, even in mid-June I can get just about everything I could ever hope to want at the farmer's market. Not that everything in this one came from there; some things simply aren't in season regardless, so I had to supplement from the grocery store. But I'd say this is about 80% farmer's market goods, and another 10% could have been if I'd gone that way.

I read somewhere once that if you're trying to eat healthy, you should always go with vegetables in a variety of colours. Not only is it pleasing to the eye, but it ensures you're getting the most diverse amount of vitamins and minerals. I think I succeeded quite well with this one!

From my favourite famer's market: Roasted Garlic Sourdough Bread, asparagus, green pepper, orange pepper, yellow pepper, red pepper, red onion, and the seasonings. Added to that from the grocery store: bacon, mushrooms, sour cream, eggs, and almond milk. And of course because I'm me, I totally forgot to get the cheese out of the refrigerator for this picture. Originally I intended to use shredded sharp cheddar, but as it turns out what I bought was taco blend, so that's what I used.

I almost included a picture of the bacon frying, because bacon. But I figure you've seen that before. I diced mine raw and then fried it, but you can cook and crumble if you prefer. I then removed it to paper towels to drain and poured all but about a tablespoon of the grease into my jar for later use. To the pan, I added the red onion for a few minutes, then the mushrooms for a few minutes more. These are the only pre-cooked items in this particular recipe, and it took me about the same amount of time to cook them as it did to chop the vegetables.

I love colour in my food! I recently discovered there are also purple bell peppers, so if I can find them anywhere (or if my niece has a bumper crop since she planted some), I'll be adding those as well. For now, though... with the red onion and mushrooms I used four colours of bell pepper and asparagus, and ended up with a beautiful variety.

In a large bowl (not quite large enough, as I discovered later), I beat eight eggs with some sour cream and almond milk. You can use whatever milk you like, of course, but the almond milk has that slightly sweet taste that goes well with this dish. I also whisked in some Italian-Romano and Great Lakes Blend seasonings from Spice Merchants, and added several twists from my Olde Thompson garlic and sea salt grinder. Feel free to use whatever seasoning blends you prefer... I just love their stuff and use it a lot (as I'm sure you've noticed).

I tore up about half the loaf of roasted garlic sourdough bread and stirred it into the egg mixture. I didn't let it stand for very long as I didn't want the bread to soak up all of the egg, just get saturated.

Immediately after adding the bread, I stirred in the bacon and the onion and mushroom mixture. As you can see, there was still plenty of egg mixture. That was soon to change when I added the vegetables.

As I mentioned, my bowl was not large enough. I ended up pouring everything into my casserole dish and mixing it, then spreading it out in an even layer. It just about filled my glass 9x13-inch dish, and with the addition of the vegetables (and also having given the bread more time to absorb), the egg mixture virtually disappeared. What I love about this picture is how well it shows the variety of colours!

The beauty of making a recipe up as you go along is flexibility. I knew I wanted a more bread pudding-like consistency, so I beat four more eggs along with some more almond milk to add to the liquid in the dish. I decided to skip adding more seasonings, although I'm sure you could if you wanted to.

After I poured the second batch of egg mixture over the casserole, I had more like what I was looking for. And it worked out even better doing it in two batches than it would have if I'd started with a dozen eggs, I think. The bread had a chance to soak up the first egg mixture, then the second one served to hold the vegetables together.

After about an hour in the oven, the pudding was set, the vegetables were tender, and the bread pieces on top were slightly crispy. I sprinkled it with cheese (this is when I discovered I would be using taco blend cheese) and popped it back in the oven for a few minutes to melt.

Cheesy, melty, healthy, deliciousness! I let it stand for a few minutes while I got out plates and whatnot, and by the time I was ready to serve it could be cut and served with a spatula rather than a spoon. Which is pretty much the perfect consistency for bread pudding as I've always known and loved it!

I had some debate with myself about calling it bread pudding, since for most people that has a sweet association and this is quite clearly savory. But the consistency and method really wouldn't let me call it anything else. Last summer I made what I ended up calling a Farmstand Strata with a lot of the same ingredients, but the bread on the top layer ended up being a lot drier and crisper than I wanted, so this year I went this route. I really couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out!

Farmstand Bread Pudding

Serves 12

1/2 pound bacon, diced

1/2 cup red onion, diced

8 ounces white mushrooms, sliced

12 large eggs

1/2 cup low-fat sour cream

1 cup almond milk, divided

2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (I used Italian Romano from Spice Merchants)

1/2 teaspoon no-salt seasoning blend (I used Great Lakes Blend from Spice Merchants)

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt (I used the grinder from Olde Thompson)

4 cups sourdough bread, torn (I used garlic sourdough from The Great Bread Company)

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 orange bell pepper, diced

1 yellow bell pepper, diced

1/2 pound asparagus, cut in 1-inch lengths

1 cup taco cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350F; coat a 9x13-inch glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain; pour off all but 1 tablespoon drippings (I added mine to the jar I keep in my refrigerator for later use).

Add onion to pan and sauté, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and sauté, stirring occasionally, 5-10 minutes more until soft and onions are translucent.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk 8 eggs with sour cream, ½ cup almond milk, and seasonings. Stir in bread pieces until completely coated. Add bacon and onion-mushroom mixture and stir well to combine. Add remaining ingredients except cheese and remaining almond milk and mix until well-combined and thoroughly coated in the egg mixture. Spread vegetable and bread mixture evenly into prepared pan, smoothing top with the back of a spoon.

In same bowl, whisk remaining 4 eggs and ½ cup almond milk until well-beaten. Pour evenly over pan.

Bake at 350F for 1 hour (or until set). Sprinkle cheese evenly over top and bake an additional 5 minutes to melt. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Serving Size: 216g

Calories: 362

Calories from Fat: 214

Total Fat: 23.7g

Saturated Fat: 11.3g

Trans Fat: 0.0g

Cholesterol: 222mg

Sodium: 712mg

Total Carbohydrates: 18.9g

Dietary Fiber: 2.5g

Sugars: 3.7g

Protein: 19.9g