Mediterranean Oat Bake

Mediterranean Oat Bake combines feta, roasted peppers, courgette, sun-dried tomatoes, herbs, and olives with nutritious rolled oats, eggs, nuts, and seeds to make the centrepiece of a delicious vegetarian main course. Chopping the fresh vegetables small, and supplementing them with jarred and tinned goodies, means there’s no precooking and the bake can be in the oven within 15 minutes.

Eaten just warm, Mediterranean Oat Bake makes a summery meal served with salad plus potatoes if liked. But it’s equally good cold, in packed lunches, and for picnics.

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I think oats are one of my favourite ingredients. Incredibly versatile, nutritious and relatively inexpensive, they can be the base of so many dishes. Near the bottom of this post, I’ve included links to some of the oaty recipes I’ve already shared. But today I want to talk about my lovely Mediterranean Oat Bake. A great example of how rolled oats (sometimes called ‘jumbo’ oats) can be the star of a tasty, nutritious vegetarian main course, lunch, or scrummy picnic food.

SAVOURY FLAPJACKS & OAT BAKES

The starting point for my oat bakes is savoury flapjacks. I came up with my first one, Savoury Flapjacks with Vegetables, Nuts, Seeds & Cheese, almost five years ago. Although I wish I’d thought of a catchier name, the principle remains sound. That is, an alternative to both sweet flapjacks and savoury snacks like my Very Cheesy Cheese Scones. As well as being tasty, they contain a good proportion of vegetables plus protein-rich egg, nuts, and seeds.

But I soon realised that savoury flapjacks needn’t be just a snack. In fact, they could be the brilliant centrepiece of a vegetarian main course. From there, I only needed to make a couple of tweaks (more veg, an extra egg for binding) to complete the transformation into oat bakes. One of my favourite savoury flapjacks had a distinctively Mediterranean flavour with feta cheese, roasted peppers, courgette, sun-dried tomatoes and olives. So, I decided to transform those into delicious Mediterranean Oat Bake.

MEDITERRANEAN OAT BAKE: INGREDIENTS

I want to be able to prepare my savoury flapjacks and oat bakes quickly and easily. That means including vegetables that need no pre-cooking before I add them to the base of rolled oats. Veggies are grated or chopped small so they cook in the relatively short baking time. I supplement these with already prepped jarred and tinned goodies. So, in my Mediterranean Oat Bake you’ll find:

• Roasted, jarred peppers. I love the convenience of jars of mixed red and yellow peppers. Because I like the colour contrast, I use one half of each colour. If you prefer to roast your own whole pepper, skin and deseed it, then of course you can.
• Courgette. After grating coarsely, I take handfuls and squeeze over a sieve. This removes excess water that could make the bake soggy.
• Red onion. I prefer the usually milder red variety in this recipe, finely chopped.
• Sun-dried tomatoes, drained of oil. These give little bursts of intense flavour.
• Black olives. I love Kalamata olives which are less bitter than some. But if you don’t like olives you could replace with more sun-dried tomatoes.

The other main ingredients you’ll need are feta cheese for a salty, tangy bite, plus butter and eggs for binding. I also like to include both fresh and dried herbs. Parsley, basil, or chives are all good fresh options. I enhance them with a teaspoon or so of my own mix of Mediterranean-style dried herbs. But you could use ready mixed Italian seasoning or herbes de Provence. If you want to add finely chopped garlic you can, although I’ve gone for speedier garlic granules.

The nuts and seeds in my oat bakes aren’t just for nutrition. I love the crunch they bring to the lightly chewy oats and vegetables. Almost any nuts and seeds will work: almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, etc. So they’re better integrated into the mix, I chop the nuts and any bigger seeds like pumpkin. For the Mediterranean Oat Bake you see in this post, I included cashews, hemp hearts, plus black and white sesame seeds.

MIXING & BAKING

Once you’ve prepped the ingredients, putting the bake together takes hardly any time. Just get yourself a big bowl and mix everything except the butter and eggs, but include a teaspoon of salt and a generous amount of black pepper. Then add 2 beaten eggs, some melted butter and stir really well to combine everything thoroughly.

Then it’s just a case of transferring to a baking tin. I’ve used a 2 lb / 900ml loaf tin this time, but a 20cm square tin is fine too. Whichever you use, either grease it with some extra butter or, as I do, use a paper liner or greaseproof paper. Be sure to press the mixture down well and smooth over the top. A final drizzle of olive oil, and it’s ready to bake in a preheated oven.

Mediterranean Oat Bake should take around 40 minutes to become firm and well-browned on top. If you insert a skewer, it should come out clean. If you’ve used a shallower baking tin rather than a loaf tin, it may take a little less time.

SERVING & STORING MEDITERRANEAN OAT BAKE

When the bake is ready, please don’t be tempted to remove it from the tin straight away. It’s quite delicate at this stage and needs to left until just warm so that it firms up a little. It you want to eat it cold or at room temperature, it’s good that way too. Cut the bake carefully into thick slices (or chunky squares if you baked in a square tin) and serve. I love it as a vegetarian main course with a mixed salad alongside. A few boiled new potatoes are nice too if you’re extra hungry.

My recipe should serve at least four. But any leftovers should be fine in the fridge for around 3 days. You can also freeze it. Mediterranean Oat Bake is also good on its own as a snack, light meal, or to put in lunchboxes and picnic hampers.

If you like Mediterranean flavours, I hope you’ll try this easy bake. Let me know what you thought by leaving a comment and rating.

MORE RECIPES USING OATS

Savoury Oat Bake

Savoury Flapjacks with Apple, Cheese & Walnuts

Mushroom, Cheese & Oat Bake

Cheesejacks: cheese & oat snacks

Staffordshire Oatcakes

Scottish Oatcakes

Homemade Digestive Biscuits

Baked Oat Pudding with Apple & Cinnamon

Fruit & Seed Flapjacks

Zesty Oat Biscuits

Chocolate Peanut Oat Balls

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Mediterranean Oat Bake

This quickly put together, nutritious bake combines Mediterranean flavours like feta, roasted peppers, courgette, sun-dried tomatoes, herbs, and olives with nutritious oats, eggs, nuts, and seeds to make the centrepiece of a delicious vegetarian main course.

Eat just warm with salad plus potatoes too if you're especially hungry. But it's equally good cold, in packed lunches, and for picnics.

Course Main Course, Lunch, Light Meal

Cuisine Mediterranean, Vegetarian

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 4 - 6

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 150 g rolled or porridge oats
• 150 g feta cheese diced or crumbled
• 1 medium red onion finely chopped
• 1 medium courgette grated then squeezed dry
• 1 jarred roasted pepper (or ½ red, ½ yellow) deseeded, roughly chopped
• 40 g sun-dried tomatoes roughly chopped
• 30 g black olives roughly chopped
• 30 g chopped nuts e.g. almond, cashew, hazelnut
• 2 tbsp mixed seeds large ones e.g. pumpkin are best chopped
• 1 heaped tbsp finely chopped herbs e.g. parsley, basil, chives
• 1½ tsp mixed dried herbs e.g. Italian seasoning or Herbes de Provence
• 1 tsp garlic granules or 1 finely chopped clove of garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• ⅓ tsp black pepper
• 3 large eggs beaten
• 50 g butter melted
• a little olive oil for the top

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C /160°C fan /Gas 4 / 350° F.

2. Put a paper liner in 2lb / 900 ml capacity loaf tin or grease it with extra butter.

   Alternatively, prepare a 20cm square baking tin in the same way.

3. Put all the ingredients EXCEPT the eggs and butter in a large mixing bowl and stir together well.

4. Tip in the beaten eggs and the melted butter and stir again, making sure everything is thoroughly combined.

   Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin, pressing down well with the back of a spoon and smoothing the top so it's level.

   Drizzle over approximately 2 tsp of olive oil, spreading it out with the back of the spoon.

5. Place in the preheated oven and bake until firm, well browned on top, and a skewer comes out clean: approximately 40 minutes (a little less if made in a shallower square tin rather than loaf tin).

6. Leave to cool until just warm before removing from the tin or it may break.

   Carefully slice and serve or leave until completely cold.

   Eat warm or cold. Can be reheated in a microwave to retain the soft texture.

   Store in the fridge and eat within 3 days or can be frozen.

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