Cooking web notes

Mediterranean Spinach Strata

This is a great dish for brunch or for a light dinner.  And what is just as good is that it can be made the night before; in fact, that is required.

This recipe is a savory bread pudding that you could add bacon, ham or sausage to.  Buy bakery fresh bread and after 3 or 4 days, when it is not so soft, slice and use it in this strata.  It makes a big difference in the end result. 

I like that this strata because is not filled with lots of oil, it uses low fat milk and does not have an abundance of cheese in it.  The recipe is from my Cooking Light Cookbook.  Here’s the recipe:

Mediterranean Spinach Strata 

Ingredients:

2 (8-ounce) loaves French bread baguette, cut into ¾-inch-thick slices

1 cup chopped onion

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 (8-ounce) package sliced mushrooms

1 tablespoon flour

2 (7-ounce) bags baby spinach

½ teaspoon salt, divided

½ teaspoon pepper, divided

3 cups thinly sliced plum tomatoes, about 1 pound

1 (4-ounce) package crumbled feta cheese

¾ cup (3-ounces) grated Asiago cheese, divided

3 cups low-fat milk

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1½ teaspoons dried oregano

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place bread slices in a single layer on a baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Add onion, garlic and mushrooms, sauté for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle flour over onion mixture, stir well.

Add spinach and cook for 3 minutes until spinach wilts.

Stir in ¼ teaspoon each, salt and pepper.

Place half of bread slices in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish that is coated with cooking spray.

Spread spinach mixture over bread.

Top with tomato slices.

Sprinkle evenly with feta and half of Asiago cheese.

Arrange remaining bread slices over cheese.

Combine ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper, milk and remaining 4 ingredients, stirring well with a whisk.

Pour over bread; sprinkle with remaining Asiago cheese.

Cover; chill 8 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Uncover strata and bake for 1 hour or until lightly browned and set.

Serve warm

About 8 servings

       

ENJOY!

Visit my friend Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips, recipes and cookbook giveaway! 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 6:43 AM and is filed under Breakfast/Brunch, Cheese, Entree, Mushrooms, Spinach, Stratas, Vegetables. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.