Roasted Lemon Vegetables Gratin

Here's a quick post with another one of my go-to side-dishes to complete a meal. As is my usual goal, this offering has a medley of vegetables and bold flavour between the lemon and the cheese. It sounds like a strange combination, but I assure you that you will be pleasantly surprised and that you will want to make this all the time!

Roasted Lemon Vegetables Gratin

1/4 onion, roughly chopped
1/2 zucchini, sliced
one section red pepper, roughly chopped
one section green pepper, roughly chopped
6 cremini mushrooms, quartered
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt, pepper, garlic powder
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
grated rind of 1/2 lemon

Preheat the oven to 400F. In a bowl, toss the vegetables with the oil, lemon juice, and seasonings until fully coated. Arrange the vegetables in a single layer on a flat roasting pan. Roast for 20 minutes in the oven, stirring after 10 minutes. While roasting, combine the breadcrumbs, cheese, and lemon rind in a small bowl.
Remove the pan from the oven after 20 minutes and give the vegetables another stir. Top vegetables with the breadcrumb mixture. Turn on the broiler and return the pan to the oven. Broil for 3-5 minutes until the cheese melts and the breadcrumbs brown. Serve immediately.

As you can see, my broiler is a tad uneven and my breadcrumbs got very brown on the one side. (You can also see how well-used my roasting pan is!) Keep an eye on the pan while it's in the broiler to ensure that you don't burn the crumb mixture. The result is savoury and satisfying. Who says vegetables can't steal the spotlight?

For my tunes, I was inspired by the heatwave we experienced at the end of last week. Saturday certainly was not the most opportune day to roast vegetables in a hot oven, but I had a craving for this concoction so I endured the Heat Wave (Martha & the Vandellas).

Cheesy Zucchini Bake

Zucchini is one of my favourite vegetables to cook with because it's so versatile. I love discovering new ways to use it. I've fried it into zucchini fritters/pancakes, stuffed it with cheese and vegetables, sautéed it into pastas and stir-fries, roasted it for a side or for a sandwich, and now I've baked it. I kept this bake very simple, just letting the zucchini and cheese speak for themselves. You could add other vegetables (mushrooms always play nice with zucchini) or add a condensed soup mix to make into more of a casserole. No matter how you prepare it, this makes a simple and elegant side dish for any meal.



Cheesy Zucchini Bake

1 zucchini, sliced

¼ onion, sliced thinly

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp olive oil

¼ cup grated cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 350^oF. Spray bottom of a glass oven-proof circular dish with cooking spray. Arrange the zucchini slices in a circular pattern in the pan, overlapping slightly. After the first layer, spread about ¾ of the onion slices on top. Add the rest of the zucchini slices in a second circular layer, and then top with the remaining onion. Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs and Parmesan, and drizzle the top with olive oil. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and top with the grated cheddar cheese. Bake for an additional 5 minutes so the cheese melts.

Here's the zucchini bake just before I put it in the oven for the first time:

It looks quite pretty in the dish laid out in the circular pattern. Yes, this took a bit more time than just throwing the zucchini in there haphazardly, but it makes the presentation that much better!


Here's the finished product after adding the grated cheddar and letting it melt in the oven:

Super cheesy! If you are making this to serve more people and decide to double the recipe and use two zucchini, I would add about 10 minutes to the cooking time to make sure all the layers are fully cooked.


For the beats, I'm bending the title of this song slightly to make it fit my message. I think this dish could make anyone try and enjoy zucchini (mostly because of all the cheese), even if they're quite reluctant. In other words, it could cause you to make an exception to your dislike of this glorious vegetable. In honour of that idea (and because I recently ordered the sheet music to this song and can't stop playing it on my piano), here is The Only Exception by Paramore.