Layered Vegetable Bake

Name: Layered Vegetable Bake
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: 1 cup or 170 g Dried Couscous; 3/4 Cup or 170 ml Boiling hot vegetable broth / boullion; I onion chopped fine; 1 cloves garlic, chopped /crushed; 1 tomato skin off & chopped; 1 tablespoon olive oil; Salt & pepper; a handful of fresh basil & Flat-leaf Parsley - chopped; Tabasco, optional; 1 Package of Raw baby spinach; 1 1/2 cups or 100 g Sliced Mushrooms; 1 whole zucchini/courgette, sliced thinly, lengthways; 1 Cup or 100 g of grated cheese of your choice ( I used a mixture of Parmesan, Mozerella, and Cheddar)

Layered Vegetable Bake, An easy and delicious oven-baked recipe with layers of zucchini, spinach, mushrooms, couscous and sprinkled with cheese. Here I wanted to create a dish suitable as a main meal or as a side dish. For vegetarians, this is a lovely filling dish and full of great flavors.

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5) Layered Vegetable Bake

6) Delicious Side dishes

What is Couscous?

Cous Cous is semolina (tiny granules of durum wheat) and is a traditional staple in North African countries such as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.
It is often served with a 'stew' or casserole where the gravy is soaked up by the couscous. On its own, it doesn't have much flavor, a bit like pasta. So you need to flavor it and then it transforms into something really quite wonderful!

For this Layered vegetable bake, I used layers of mushrooms, spinach, and courgette/zucchini, amongst layers of couscous and grated cheese. It was very tasty indeed! I like this recipe because it can be whatever you want it to be! You can choose other vegetables or flavorings, and so long as you keep to the couscous, play around with the other veggies for what your family enjoys the most!

This would be a great recipe to serve alongside your other dishes at Thanksgiving or Christmas too!

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So let's see how we make this delicious Layered Vegetable Bake

Ingredients

The cous cous layer

1 cup or 170 g Dried Couscous
¾ Cup or 170 ml Boiling hot vegetable broth / boullion
I onion chopped fine
1 cloves garlic, chopped /crushed
1 tomato skin off & chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt & pepper
handful of fresh basil leaves & Flat leaf Parsley - chopped
Tabasco (optional)

The other layers

1 Package of Raw baby spinach
1 ½ cups or 100 g Sliced Mushrooms
1 whole zucchini / courgette, sliced thinly, lengthways
1 Cup or 100 g of grated cheese of your choice ( I used mixture of Parmesan, Mozerella and Cheddar)

NOTES

Please be sure to keep the ratio of water to couscous. Too much water will result in a soggy lumpy mess! Too little and the cous cous won't fluff up.
You can swap any of the vegetables for others, like eggplant, or frozen spinach, beans, etc.
You can also omit or add more or less cheese, or swap it for a tomato pasta sauce.
This really is a very flexible recipe, so choose whatever your heart desires!
You can also add some minced garlic when you're sauteing the mushrooms for an extra flavor dimension.

Instructions

Firstly, we prepare the couscous as follows:

1. Add boiling hot water to a jug with the stock cube and dissolve it, or if using broth, bring it to a boil.

Then add it to the bowl with the couscous. Place a lid or plastic wrap over the bowl. (covering the couscous will allow it to steam and absorb the water.)

Layered Vegetable Bake, preparing couscous

2. Add olive oil to a pan and cook onions and garlic. Add salt & pepper if you wish.

3. Whilst the onions etc are cooking, place the tomato in a jug with some hot water so the skin can be removed.

Layered Vegetable Bake, how to remove skin from tomato

4. Cook the onions etc until they are translucent and everything is soft. Remove the tomato from the water and peel off the skin, and chop into cubes. Add to the pan of onions etc and combine. Remove pan from heat. Add the minced garlic now if you are using.

Layered Vegetable Bake, cooking couscous ingredients

5. Remove the lid from the bowl of cous cous and using a fork, poke it around and stir it quite a lot until it fluffs up and the cous cous is not clumped together.

Layered Vegetable Bake, fluff up the cous cous with a fork

6. Add ALL the contents from the pan to the couscous. Do not drain first. You need the oil and juices to flavor the couscous. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add tabasco, fresh chopped herbs, and combine.

Next we prepare the other vegetables.

7. For the zucchini/courgette, slice lengthways and place in the pan with a drop of olive oil and lightly fry until half cooked. Remove and place on kitchen paper.

Do the same for the sliced mushrooms then set aside, and for the spinach, if using fresh spinach, wash well and dry.

8. Build the bake. (season with salt and pepper in between each layer if you wish!)
Use an oven proof dish roughly 8 x 8 inches or a little larger. You don't need to be too precise with the size.
Start with a layer using some of the mushrooms, then a layer of cous cous, then zucchini / courgette, then cous cous, then spinach, then cous cous, then mushrooms, ending in a layer of cous cous.

In between each layer, thinly sprinkle some grated cheese all over. Top with a sprinkling of cheese before the oven.

Layered Vegetable Bake An easy and delicious recipe, layers of zucchini, spinach, mushrooms, cous cous and sprinkled with cheese.

9. Place in preheated oven, 180 C or 350 F and cook until the top is browned. Should take around 20 - 30 minutes. Once ready, allow to stand for 15 minutes to make it easier for slicing, then serve!

NOTE:

You can choose any order of layers you like, however, please ensure, if using fresh spinach, it has a layer of couscous directly under and above it. This is so the couscous can absorb any water from the spinach during cooking, otherwise, you could end up with excess water in your bake!

We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our post. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Recipe Card

Layered Vegetable Bake

Yield: 4 - 6

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Layered Vegetable Bake, An easy and delicious oven-baked recipe with layers of zucchini, spinach, mushrooms, couscous and sprinkled with cheese.

Ingredients

The couscous layers

1 cup or 170 g Dried Couscous
¾ Cup or 170 ml Boiling hot vegetable broth / boullion
I onion chopped fine
1 cloves garlic, chopped /crushed
1 tomato skin off & chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt & pepper
a handful of fresh basil & Flat-leaf Parsley - chopped
Tabasco, optional

The other layers

1 Package of Raw baby spinach
1 ½ cups or 100 g Sliced Mushrooms
1 whole zucchini/courgette, sliced thinly, lengthways
1 Cup or 100 g of grated cheese of your choice ( I used a mixture of Parmesan, Mozerella, and Cheddar)

Instructions

Firstly, we prepare the couscous as follows:
Add boiling hot water to a jug with the stock cube and dissolve it, or if using broth, bring it to a boil. Then add it to the bowl with the couscous. Place a lid or plastic wrap over the bowl. (covering the couscous will allow it to absorb the water.
Add olive oil to a pan and cook onions and garlic. Add salt & pepper if you wish.
Whilst the onions etc are cooking, place the tomato in a jug with some hot water so the skin can be removed.
Cook the onions etc until they are translucent and everything is soft. Remove the tomato from the water and peel off the skin, and chop into cubes. Add to the pan of onions etc and combine. Remove pan from heat.
Remove the lid from the bowl of couscous and using a fork, poke it around and stir it quite a lot until it fluffs up and the couscous is not clumped together.
Add ALL the contents from the pan to the couscous. Do not drain first. You need the oil and juices to flavor the couscous. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add tabasco, fresh chopped herbs, and combine.
Next, we prepare the other vegetables.
For the zucchini/courgette, slice lengthways and place in the pan with a drop of olive oil and lightly fry until half cooked. Remove and place on kitchen paper. Do the same for the sliced mushrooms then set them aside.
For the spinach, if using fresh spinach, wash well and dry.
Build the bake. (season with salt and pepper in between each layer if you wish!)
Use an oven-proof dish roughly 8 x 8 inches or a little larger. You don't need to be too precise with the size.
Start with a layer using some of the mushrooms, then a layer of couscous, then zucchini/courgette, then couscous, then spinach, then couscous, then mushrooms, ending in a layer of couscous. In between each layer, thinly sprinkle some grated cheese all over. Top with a sprinkling of cheese before the oven.
Place in the preheated oven, 180 C or 350 F, and cook until the top is browned. Should take around 20 - 30 minutes. Once ready, allow to stand for 15 minutes to make it easier for slicing, then serve!

Notes

You can choose any order of layers you like, however, please ensure, if using fresh spinach, it has a layer of cous cous directly under and above it. This is so the cous cous can absorb any water from the spinach during cooking, otherwise you could end up with excess water in your bake!

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 162Total Fat: 9gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 17mgSodium: 382mgCarbohydrates: 15gFiber: 3gSugar: 3gProtein: 8g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate

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