vegetable au gratin

by

Vegetable au Gratin – Recipe No 135

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In support of the Central England Co-op’s Easy Eating Campaign I’m making a few wartime recipes to promote simple, easy food and support food bloggers in the UK.

The first recipe is a simple, inexpensive, veggie meal, using fresh food from the Co-op,  taken from the wartime Ministry of Foods Cheese leaflet No 12… Vegetable au Gratin.

And there is a story behind this dish and it’s to do with the big pottery dish I used in this recipe…

Richard (Mr Tiddles) and I recently spent four days in France in La Rochelle. One day we popped into a small little shop tucked down one of the back streets, to buy some bread, cheese and wine (we heard you have to do that in France so we did).

I think the shop keeper loved Richard and his beard, he called his wife down for a chat (they lived over the top of the shop) and he gave Richard a free big pottery dish which we gratefully took away with us back to the UK.

Seeing the wartime recipe for ‘Vegetables au Gratin’ I just had to use the dish (which by the way says on it ‘Tradition de Vendee – Porc Fermier Plein Air’ and if you know what that translates to I’d be ever so grateful if you could share your linguistic wisdom).

So here is ‘Vegetable au Gratin’ served in a French dish that travelled all the way back from France in Richard’s backpack. It’s simple, tasty, and economical.. ENJOY!

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Ingredients

  • 3 breakfast cups of diced cooked vegetables
  • 1 breakfast cup of white or coloured beans
  • 1 small chopped leek
  • 3 oz strong grated cheese (use more if available)
  • 1 oz flour
  • 1/2 pint of vegetable stock
  • 1/2 pint of milk (I used almond milk)
  • Lots of salt and pepper

Method

  1. Cook vegetables and set aside
  2. Mix flour to a paste with some of the vegetable stock and milk
  3. Put the remaining liquid in a pan and bring to the boil.
  4. Slowly add in the paste and mix
  5. Add the cooked vegetables and half the cheese and season with lots of salt and pepper
  6. Put into a ovenproof dish
  7. Sprinkle with cheese and a sliced tomato (optional)
  8. Grill until browned

This dish serves 4 – 6 people and using ingredients from the Co-op it cost £3.50 to make.

C xxx

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