Luckily, it tasted better than it looked.
On to the next gratin! I forgot to mention in my first post that the section we’re doing now is Chapter 1, Hearty Vegetable Mains. This gratin was a lot heartier than the Summer Vegetable version, and it was easier to make. There was no lengthy draining of vegetables involved. It did call for three pounds of plum tomatoes to be cored and sliced, but, full disclosure, I didn’t feel like coring that many tomatoes so I just sliced off the tops and tossed them.
I had two main problems with this recipe. The first is that it took FOREVER to make. 20 minutes cooking onions, an hour and half baking time, and another half hour of cooling time. Two and a half hours just felt like a little too much time to spend on a weeknight dinner that frankly, tasted a little strange, which brings me to the second problem. The flavors were just an odd combination. Ordinarily, I’d really enjoy a casserole with two cups of melted cheese on top, but the combination of potatoes, tomatoes, olives and thyme just didn’t really gel for me.
The bottom line:
For a reasonably tasty but kind of strange dish, not worth the time involved.
Difficulty: not much chopping involved, some peeling and grating, and pretty easy slicing. 2 chef knives out of 5. 🔪🔪
Kid-friendliness: no consensus between my kids. One of them loved it, one hated it, and two wouldn’t try it. 2 yummy faces out of 5? 😋😋
Time: this just took way too long to bake and cool. 6 snails out of 5, because I can. 🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌
Mess: an average amount of mess. prep bowls, baking dish, frying pan, cheese grater. 3 dirty dishes out of 5. 🥣🥣🥣
Overall: 👎🏽
Here’s a link to the recipe if you still want to try it!:
700 Vegetarian Recipes 