Veggie Casserole

This recipe came from my post college roommate, Cindy.  It makes a LOT of casserole, but is pretty tasty!  I always add more hot sauce after all is baked.  I made it last night since John is off to Normandy until Friday.  I thought it would be good to snack on while he’s gone and limit my total cooking time.  (Besides, cooking for one is a not as fun.)  The senior officers get to go on a field trip and discuss the logistics of the WWII battle there.  It sounds like a lot of fun, but it also included a LOOOONG bus trip.  Hopefully he has a good time.

Veggie Casserole

Preheat oven to 350 deg.

1 potato, sliced (or 2-3 red potatoes)

1 green pepper (I used red.  I hate green peppers)

2 zucchini.  (I used one half of a large one)

2 carrots

1 16 oz package of frozen peas

¾ C of uncooked rice

1 can of tomatoes (if you don’t like tomato chunks, like me, I pureed them in a food processor first, water and all)

1 ½ C of water (or refill said tomato can with water)

2 Tbsp of parsley

2 Tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar.  (I used vinegar before I remembered the lemons I had in the fridge.  It probably would have been better with lemon juice)

2 T – 1/3 C olive oil

3 tsp of salt  (isn’t this = to 1 Tbsp?)

½ pepper. (more if you like)

Dash hot sauce (more or less if you like)

1 C grated cheese.

Layer all raw ingredients but cheese in a large baking dish (I used a 9 x 13 pyrex) and mix together.  Bake at 350 deg F for an hour and a half (90 min).  With 3 remaining minutes, top with cheese and return to oven to melt.

This recipe is really flexible and easy to substitute.  I toyed with adding broccoli or cauliflower, but I didn’t want to overload the pan.  You get a lot of veggies in there, and it’s easy to overfill.  I did also pull it out at an hour because it seemed done, but the potatoes and rice were still a bit crunchy.  Then I changed the setting on my oven because I think the setting was overbrowning the top veggies.  My oven is tiny, and no I don’t fully know what the settings are.  It’s more than just temperature and broil.  There is a symbol with a fan on it, which I am assuming is a convection feature.  But it does brown the tops of whatever is in there faster.  What can I say?  I’m still a novice. J  Regardless of my oven ignorance, this dish was still very tasty.