What to do w/ leftovers?
For a dinner event during weekend I prepared lots of oven-baked vegetables. It was delicious accompanied by some chicken filled w/ lemons & rosemary, a generous mix of fresh basil leaves & pressed garlic under the skin for especially flavoring the chicken breasts. (Maybe you think that the vegetables accompanied the chicken …) We all enjoyed the dinner …, however, some of the oven-baked vegetables remained on their plate afterwards (although my better half & I had snacked on the vegetables before – just when coming out of the oven).
For a start I rescued them in some containers taking care not to mix it up too much & stored them in the fridge. Some days later I decided to do a dinner salad w/ the leftovers & I imagined that some burrata or mozzarella would fit … & on top some still warm crispy pieces of fried bread …
We are in Northern Spain now …, but you may have realized meanwhile that I like to do some baking trays filled w/ Mediterranean vegetables in oven – just flavored w/ olive oil, salt & pepper, maybe some dried herbs of Provence sprinkled on top. So there are always leftovers waiting in the fridge …
How to do oven-baked vegetables?
I started w/ lots of aubergines/eggplants, courgettes/zucchinis, mushrooms, red peppers, shallots & potatoes. You may also add fennel or tomatoes – even some Hokkaido slices will fit in.
The vegetables were cleaned, trimmed & cut into rather big chunks resp. thick slices, mixed w/ olive oil, dried Mediterranean herbs & salt & pepper. Arranged on baking trays they marched in a preheated oven at about 190° C w/ fan for about 30 min.
Using 2 baking trays lined w/ baking parchment (for the sake of easy cleaning!) I had 2 oven sessions i. e. 4 baking trays full of vegetables.
If you go through the efforts of making oven-baled vegetables just fill each baking tray to the rim. It’s not useful to work w/ baking trays only filled sparsely. The baking session in the oven isn’t any shorter. The time for cleaning, trimming & chopping isn’t any longer – at least not much. So use whatever is possible & produce just a lot of oven-baked vegetables.
They are fine hot for any dinner & cold (at room temperature!) for any happy hour or whatever.
The leftovers (or better some of them) fitted nicely in 2 containers which marched in the fridge.
Therefore I had for my planned salad:
- oven-baked courgettes/zucchini & red peppers & aubergines/eggplant & shallots
- fresh tomatoes
- fresh spring onions.
In addition I had a wonderful ball of buffalo mozzarella & a loaf of Italian ciabatta.
Originally I thought about using burrata, however, when roaming my trusted food store I had to accept that burrata was out. Burrata is creamier than mozzarella … For the salad, however, the buffalo mozzarella was also fine!
Now: just take a big plate & arrange the oven-baked vegetables. It’s best when they are at room temperature.
Chop the spring onions & cut the tomatoes into halves: just arrange them on top.
Whisk together (in your mixing bottle!) some olive oil, balsamic vinegar & sweet mustard; add salt & pepper to taste & distribute it evenly over everything.
Rip apart the buffalo mozzarella & arrange on top.
Last act: rip apart some bread & fry it in a dash of olive oil. As soon as crispy scatter the hot/warm pieces of bread all over the plate & serve immediately.
Enjoy!
- about 500g assorted oven-baked vegetables
- about 250 g buffalo mozzarella
- 2-3 spring onions
- 10-12 small tomatoes about 100 g
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp sweet mustard
- salt & pepper
- 2-3 slices of white bread
- a dash of olive oil
- Arrange the oven-baked vegetables on a plate large enough …
- Chop the spring onions & cut the small tomatoes in halves; arrange both on top of the baked vegetables.
- Whisk together the olive oil, the balsamic vinegar & the mustard; use a bottle for shaking for the easy approach.
- Add salt & pepper to taste.
- Pour the dressing evenly over the vegetables.
- Tear apart the buffalo mozzarella & arrange on top.
- Tear apart the slices of white bread & fry in a pan w/ just a dash of olive oil.
- As soon as the pieces of bread get crispy add them on top of the salad.
- Serve at once.
