DAY TWENTY FIVE: Oat bake with tomato and caramelised onions

On a whim I made this little oat bake for my lunch last weekend in the midst of going crazy with 'sweet treat' experiments. I craved something savoury and this is what happened...

For something so experimental I hadn't expected this to be quite so good! I'm not sure what made it quite so yummy, maybe the oat bake, maybe the topping, maybe both...combined with a savoury craving that this really needed satisfying. This sure did the job.

The oat bake was lovely light and moist, that in itself surprised me since I was expecting it to be more of a dense flat bake. Considering it has very little fat and hardly any flour, I was surprised at the delicacy. It also rose nicely with a rustic crust.  I baked it in a small cake ring as a circular guide so for the measurements below I got one serving approx. 2cm deep and 12cm wide. You could always use metal egg poaching rings or even small pie trays?

(picture of the plain oat bake taken with my phone)

For the topping, I wanted to go 'bruschetta' style as this never fails to please, so here we have caramelised onions, vine tomatoes a few shredded basil leaves..... and some beetroot chutney that happened to be sitting in the cupboard (a gift to my dad but he doesn't like beetroot) I thought it could make a great combo. You could use any chutney here to give a flavoursome kick, or leave it out altogether.  The flavours in the oat bake itself could also be adapted to your own taste, I kept it fairly low key as I knew the topping would be the star in the flavour stakes, and the oat bake was to become the texture king. 

I will definitely be making this again...next time I will quadruple the recipe and get my whole family in on the act!

Makes 1 oat bake (approx. 12cm diameter 1 inch thick)

Recipe: Oat bake with tomato and caramelised onions

Ingredients- oat bake

½ cup oats

¼ cup buckwheat flower

½ tsp heaped baking powder

1 tbs ground flax/chia

1 tbs nutritional yeast (optional)

½ tsp stock paste or stock cube to taste

¼ tsp salt (or to taste)

1 tsp soy sauce/liquid aminos

1 tsp olive oil

¼ cup soy yoghurt

Approx. 3 tbs soy milk as needed

Ingredients- topping

1 small red onion- sliced

Handful baby vine tomatoes- halved

Few leaves fresh basil- shredded

2 tbs chutney of choice

Method

Mix the dry ingredients together and then add the wet ingredients and mix well well to form a thick but easily spoonable batter.

Spoon/pour into a baking rind/mini pie tin/muffin tins. Smooth the top and bake at 180C for approx. 10 mins until risen and just turning golden on top.

Whilst the oat bake is cooking, prepare the onion and fry  for approx. 5 mins until soft and golden, adding the tomato after a couple of minutes. Just before removing from the heat add the chutney  to heat through.

Serve the topping mix over the oat bake and top with shredded basil leaves.

What Vegan MOFO means to me.

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Tomato ketchup

So, you remember this post from a couple of days ago…

Black bean beet burgers!

Well just peeking through in the corner of that photo is a little pot of tomato sauce. Homemade tomato ketchup, with a sweet  kick just like regular tomato ketchup but without all the sugar!  What provides the sweetness…plums! Helped out with a little agave syrup (you could omit this is you liked), the plums are a perfect complement to the fresh tomatoes.  I also added some ground chia seed stirred through right at the end to give a health boost and to act as a thickener. If you don’t have chia I would advise experimenting with some other form of thickener to achieve the right consistency for your sauce.

This will store in the fridge for a good for weeks and is the perfect companion for summer time. I can already picture the burgers on the BBQ now! It’s best to store this sauce for a couple of weeks before consuming as it will allow the flavour to mature…nut feel free to dip in of you can’t wait that long!

This sauce would also work well as a basic pasta sauce or base for my super- speedy  GF pizza crust.

Recipe: Tomato ketchup

Makes approx. 500ml

Ingredients

1 large clove garlic

400g ripe vine tomatoes

120g ripe plums

2tbs tomato puree

20g agave

1tsp molasses- optional (gives a slightly deeper richness)

50g white wine vinegar

1 bay leaf

2 cloves

1 small chilli pepper with seeds removed

Salt to taste (I added approx. ¼ tsp)

3-4 tbs ground chia seed

Method

Roughly chop the garlic and add to a food processor along with the tomatoes and plums, pulse to achieve a coarse even ‘paste’.

I used my Thermomix for the entire cooking process, but for those without, transfer the tomato mixture to a medium pan, add the remaining ingredients (except chia) and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring as required to avoid sticking. Add the ground chia in the last  minute.

Remove the cloves and bay leaf (if you can find them) and then transfer the mixture to a blender (or use a stick blender in the pan) and blend until you have a smooth mixture.

Pour into a sterilised bottle or jar and store in the fridge. The flavour matures over a couple of weeks.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.