This savory bread pudding recipe from Chef Hari Pulapaka makes delicious use of ingredients that might otherwise be destined for the garbage can. Save them from their fate and you’ll not only be rewarded with an easy main course, you’ll help the planet by cutting down on food waste. Click here to read Chef Hari’s article, Trimming Food Cost with Creativity Can Help People, Profits, and the Planet.
Scrappy Bread Pudding
Servings: 4
Ingredients
3 cups assorted vegetable scraps and trims (cauliflower cores, peeled broccoli stems, carrot, turnip, parsnip peels, etc.), blanched in salted water and chopped coarsely
10 ounces “mushy” mushrooms, quartered or roughly chopped
12 ounces bread (stale bread is best), cut into ½ inch cubes
10 ounces “slightly past best buy date” dairy (milk or half and half)
10 ounces goat cheese (optional, you may substitute white cheddar or gruyere)
1 cup still tender, but wilted fresh herb stems (cilantro, parsley, basil, etc.)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
whites from 4 large eggs
extra-virgin olive oil, as needed
salt & pepper, in stages and per taste
Method
Toss the mushrooms in some extra virgin olive oil with thyme sprigs or stems. Season them lightly with salt and pepper and roast on a baking sheet in a 400-degree oven for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven, let the mushrooms cool and discard the thyme sprigs.
On medium heat, sauté the vegetable scraps in a saucepan with some extra virgin olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and bay leaves and stir for 30 seconds so the garlic doesn’t burn. Add the dairy and half of the goat cheese (reserve the other half of the cheese for later). After the liquid simmers for 10 minutes, remove from the heat, let cool a bit, and temper the egg whites in a bowl in stages.
Finish with chopped wilted herbs and season the liquid with salt and pepper until well-seasoned. Pour this warm dairy-egg mixture over the bread that has been torn into 1/2-inch pieces. Add the roasted mushrooms and the remaining goat cheese (in dollops). Mix well and pour this mixture into a (non-stick) baking dish that has been sprayed with a baking spray or greased with oil. Bake at 350F for about an hour. Let it cool down completely before serving it as a main course accompanied by a salad or an accompaniment to other main courses.
