Mushroom, Cheese & Bacon Oat Bake

Mushroom, Cheese & Bacon Oat Bake (and its veggie incarnation with nuts instead of bacon) is a tasty, easy and economical dish. Which I think makes it perfect for weeknight dinners.

Meeting a challenge set by Totally Locally, I was able to source all the ingredients from the independent shops on my local high street for just FIVE POUNDS. And that includes the vegetables to eat alongside!

Feeding a family of four for a fiver, including three of your five-a-day portions of veg, is pretty good value in my book. AND you can do all that while supporting your local independent high street businesses too!

TASTY, NUTRITIOUS & LOCAL ON A BUDGET

When I was asked by Totally Locally Leek to come up with a meal for a family of four for just five pounds, buying ingredients only from local independent businesses, I have to admit I was rather sceptical. But amazingly, it can be done! Not only that, I think the result is tasty, nutritious AND will provide each person with at least 3 portions of veg!

Mushroom, Cheese & Bacon Oat Bake is a simple mix of seasoned rolled oats (the kind you make your porridge with), mushrooms, onion and cheese plus bacon (or nuts). Bound together with nutritious eggs, it takes just 20-25 minutes in the oven.

With seasonal veg on the side it makes a wholesome satisfying meal. Also good cold, the bake is great for lunchboxes too.

Why don’t you set yourself the same challenge and make Mushroom, Cheese & Bacon Oat Bake (or my veggie alternative) using only the independent shops where YOU live?

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FIVER FEST

If you don’t already know, Totally Locally is a fantastic campaign to get us sourcing more of our shopping from the independent businesses on our high streets. There are currently around a hundred Totally Locally towns in the UK, including Leek here in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

I think one of Totally Locally’s really important messages is that even switching just a fiver a week of your spending to local independent businesses can have a HUGE positive impact on the local economy.

In the case of Leek, that would mean a whopping extra £4.1 MILLION every year!

To really bring home that message, several times a year Totally Locally holds Fiver Fest. This is where, for two weeks, local businesses offer special £5 deals. These not only highlight what they do, but are a thank you to the communities that support them.

So, for the 9 – 23 October 2021 Fiver Fest, I was challenged to create a meal for four using only the independent shops in Leek. The meal had to cost no more than a fiver.

The result was Mushroom, Cheese & Bacon Oat Bake plus a veggie version with nuts instead of bacon. Here I serve it alongside buttery Savoy cabbage.

I’m incredibly pleased with the result and hope you’ll love it too!

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SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

There are no fancy ingredients in this bake. Just simple, wholesome foods you should be able to buy on any high street.

Free-range eggs, tasty cheese, butter, mushrooms, onions, dried herbs (I used sage, but thyme would be good too), salt and pepper, oats, plus smoked bacon or chopped mixed nuts.

Frustrated by many budget recipes not including anywhere near enough vegetables, I decided to set aside at least £1  of my budget for a vegetable accompaniment.

OAT BAKE

I’ve been making Savoury Flapjacks for a number of years now and they were the starting point for my oat bake. Originally an alternative snack to Cheese Scones, I discovered that with a couple of tweaks flapjacks could become the centre of a main meal.

With porridge oats or the larger rolled oats (sometimes called ‘jumbo’ oats) being incredibly cheap, they seemed like the obvious contender to be at the heart of a budget meal for a fiver. As well as being economical and nutritious, I love the way they bring a satisfying chew to the Mushroom, Cheese & Bacon Oat Bake.

DINNER FOR A FIVER

For those interested in exactly how I made this meal for 4 for £5, here’s the ingredient costs for the bacon and vegetarian versions. All prices are correct at time of writing, rounded up or down to the nearest penny.

For the vegetarian oat bake with nuts instead of bacon, I increased the amount of cheese from 75 grams to 100 grams.

This was to make up for the bags of flavour that even a relatively small amount of smoked bacon can bring.

I paid 85p for the Savoy cabbage plus 16p for butter and seasoning. This gave me a grand total of £4.99 for Mushroom, Cheese & Bacon Oat Bake served with buttered cabbage and £5 for the nut version.

If you want to know more about my Fiver Fest challenge, including the shops I used, read my guest blog post on the Totally Locally Leek website here

EASY MUSHROOM, CHEESE & BACON OAT BAKE

You’ll find a detailed recipe at the end of this post, but here’s a quick overview of how to make easy oat bake.

If you’re including the bacon, start by putting the chopped pieces in a frying pan. There’s no need to add extra fat, just let the pieces cook and get slightly brown. Remove from the pan when done and set aside.

If you’re using the chopped mixed nuts, toast those in the pan instead. Next, it’s in with the butter and onion. I cook it for about 5 minutes before adding chopped mushrooms, salt, pepper and dried sage. When you first add the mushrooms, it may look a little dry. But don’t worry. The mushrooms will soon release their juices.

You need to keep cooking for another 5 minutes or so, until those juices evaporate and things are nicely browned. See photo above for how mine looked at this stage. All that’s left to do then is take a large bowl and mix the bacon or nuts with the cooked onion and mushroom plus the oats and cheese.

I beat the eggs separately, then stir them in along with a little more salt and pepper.

I cook the bake in a square tin lined with baking paper. If you don’t have baking paper, use a little of the butter for greasing. A few slices of reserved mushroom look nice pushed into the surface of the bake.

My tin is 20 cm square, but 18-20 cm is fine. I haven’t tried it myself, but suspect you could cook the bake in a small loaf tin instead. In a preheated oven, the Mushroom, Cheese & Bacon (or nut!) Oat Bake should only take 20-25 minutes to get risen and golden.

SERVING & STORING

Cut into squares, the oat bake can be served alongside your chosen veggies.

My Savoy cabbage was HUGE, coming in at over a kilo for just 85p. I simmered not quite all of it before draining and tossing it with butter plus a little salt and pepper.

If you want more variety, for around the same price you could halve the amount of cabbage and replace it with a shredded leek.

Even if your cabbage is smaller, say just 500 grams, adding it to the 300 grams of mushrooms and approximately 160 grams of onion in the oat bake and you have THREE portions of vegetables per person in this meal.

500 + 300 + 160 = 960 g. Dividing by 4 people = 240 g of vegetables each or three 80 g portions per person.

Not bad, eh?

BUDGET, TASTY & LOCAL FOOD

Having grown up in a family where money was tight, I’m not one of those people who claims it’s easy to feed a family well on a limited budget. As all too many people know, calculating how to get as much nutrition and flavour as you can for every penny can be quite a task.

But I hope this recipe is a positive example of what can be done. More than that though, it demonstrates that we can create tasty, economical dishes using just our local independent shops.

This helps to keep money in the local economy. The businesses you buy from go on to buy from other local businesses.

I’m lucky to have the town of Leek on my doorstep with its great range of local food and drink businesses. But if we don’t use our local High Streets then we’ll lose them.

As the Totally Locally campaign says: ‘Shop like your High Street depends on it. Because it does’.

Can you make this recipe for a fiver using your local independent shops?

Leave a comment and don’t forget to rate the recipe!

Post a photo on Instagram and tag @moorlandseater

5 from 1 vote

Print

Mushroom, Cheese & Bacon Oat Bake

A tasty, easy and economical dish (make it vegetarian by using nuts instead of bacon) that's perfect for weeknight dinners.

Served with buttered cabbage, it will provide each person with 3 of their 5 recommended daily portions of veg.

Course Main Course

Cuisine British

Keyword budget recipes

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 4

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 75 g smoked bacon may be substituted with 60 g chopped nuts
• 60 g mixed chopped nuts leave out if including bacon
• 30 g butter
• 1 medium onion approx 160 g finely chopped
• 300 g mushrooms roughly chopped (optional: save 4 slices for decoration)
• salt & pepper
• 1 rounded tsp dried sage or thyme
• 150 g rolled 'jumbo' oats
• 75-100 g mature Cheddar cheese, grated use smaller amount if including bacon instead of nuts
• 3 large eggs beaten

To serve (optional)

• 1 Savoy cabbage shredded
• 20 g butter
• salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C / 160 C Fan / Gas 4.

   Line a baking dish 18-20cm square with baking paper or use a little of the butter to grease it.

2. If including the bacon:

   Remove and discard the bacon rind. Chop the bacon into small pieces and put in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat.

   Stirring occasionally, cook until lightly browned (approx 5 min) then remove from the pan and set aside.

   If including the chopped nuts:

   Put in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Lightly toast the nuts, stirring constantly (approx 5 min). Remove from the pan and set aside.

3. Turn the heat to medium low and add the butter.

   Add the chopped onion and cook until starting to soften (approx 5 min).

   Stir in the mushrooms along with the dried sage or thyme plus a little salt and pepper.

   Cook until the mushrooms release their juices (approx 5 min) then turn up the heat to medium high.

   Continue to cook until the liquid has evaporated, and the mushrooms are lightly browned (approx 5 min) then take off the heat.

4. Put in a large mixing bowl the oats and cheese.

   Stir in the bacon or nuts plus the onion and mushroom mixture.

   Pour in the beaten eggs, season with a little salt and pepper then stir to thoroughly combine.

   Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared tin. Top with the reserved mushroom slices if using, pressing them lightly into the mixture.

5. Place in the preheated oven and cook for 20-25 minutes or until set, risen and golden brown on top.

   Cut into four and serve with the buttered cabbage.

   Leftovers can be kept in the fridge for 3-4 days or can be frozen.

For the buttered cabbage

1. Boil or steam the cabbage, seasoned with a little salt if liked.

   Drain well then toss with the butter, seasoning it with pepper and more salt if needed.

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