Cheesy broccoli bake – low calorie

Cheesy broccoli bake

I’ve been heavily into my veges lately. I don’t know if it’s my body subtly trying to rid itself of a little winter coat or just that they’re so delicious at the moment. Ricotta is another thing I can’t get enough of ever since I realised I wasn’t actually allergic to it. This recipe combines the two and tastes juts like my creamy potato bake but is in fact really low in calories and it seems like you’re having an enormous meal. I’m going to trial making potato bake this way too.

The ingredients

There aren’t too many ingredients in this dish but it’s full of flavour.

Steaming the broccoli

Start by steaming the broccoli until it starts to soften. You can do this using a steamer basket on the stove or do as I did and throw it all in a rice cooker with a tiny bit of water and microwave it for 2 1/2 minutes.

Milk and cornflour

Pour all but 1/4 of a cup of the milk into a saucepan and set it aside. To the remaining 1/4 of a cup, add the corn flour and stir it until it is dissolved.

Heating the milk

Heat the saucepan of milk on the stove and bring it to the boil.

Whisk in the cornflour milk

When it starts to boil, whisk in the cornflour and milk mixture and continue to heat it, whisking until it starts to thicken. It takes about a minute.

Ricotta

Take the saucepan off the stove and stir in the ricotta, nutmeg and garlic and season it with salt and pepper.

In with the veges

Spread the broccoli and zuccini on the bottom of a baking dish. Mine was about 30 x 20 cm

Cheesy topping

Pour the ricotta mixture over the top of the veges and shuffle them around a bit so they are all coated.

Parmesan

Sprinkle the grated parmesan over the top of the vegetables. Bake the veges at 200C fan-forced for about 25-30 minutes or until the cheese on top is golden.

Cheesy broccoli bake

Serve the bake piping hot with a simple green salad. Enjoy!

I’ve been doing a little bit of extra writing for the On The Menu blog. I just wrote about a great recipe for haloumi stuffed capsicum.

Cheesy broccoli bake

Cheesy broccoli bake recipe adapted from recipe by Michelle Bridges

serves 2, 260 calories per serve

• 300 g broccoli, cut into small florets (cut the stem up too)
• 2 x 150 g zucchini, coarsely chopped
• 3 tsp (15 g) cornflour
• 250 ml low-fat milk
• 125 g fat-reduced ricotta
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• salt and pepper to season
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 2 tbsp (40 g) grated parmesan

Pre-heat the oven to 200C fan-forced.

Steam the broccoli until it softens either using the microwave or in a steamer basket on the stove.

Pour all but 1/4 of a cup of the milk into a saucepan and set it aside.

Add the corn flour the 1/4 of a cup of milk and stir it until the flour has dissolved.

Heat the saucepan of milk on the stove until it starts to boil then whisk in the cornflour mixture. Continue to heat the mixture, whisking until it thickens. It take about 1 minute.

Stir the ricotta, nutmeg and garlic into the pan and season it with salt and pepper.

Spread the vegetables over the bottom of the baking dish in a single layer then pour the ricotta mixture over the top.

Sprinkle the parmesan over the top of the vegetables.

Bake the veges for 25-30 minutes or until the parmesan turns golden.

Serve it with a green salad.