Quick Mexican Zucchini Pudding

by Monika Bartyzel, Posted Jan 8th 2009 @ 6:01PM

I'm not sure there is a baked dish that's quite as simple as vegetable pudding. Cook and mash your vegetables, add some other tasty ingredients, top with cheese, and bake. In no time at all, you will have a sizzling side dish or tasty main. It's perfect for leftover-using, less pan-dirtying, and quick post-work meals.

The following dish comes from Mexican Border Flavors: The Beautiful Cookbook. Beautiful indeed -- a big honking book with a ton of Mexican recipes and pictures on its large, glossy pages. Budin de Calabacita, or Zucchini Pudding, is a mixture of mashed zucchini, cheese, and crackers that gets mixed, thrown into a dish, and baked.

Since I was cooking for one, I halved the recipe (except the egg) and threw the mix into 2 ramekins, which I found more appealing than scooping and slopping it onto my plate post-baking. In this meal, you really taste the crackers, so it's the perfect dish for flavorful crackers and crumbs -- maybe even some croutons, as well as good spicy flavor, whether from spices alone, or maybe some sauteed garlic and onions.

Bon appetit!

Zucchini Pudding

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped zucchini
1 cup + 2 tbsp grated cheddar cheese (or alternate cheese)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup crushed soda crackers (plain biscuits)
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350

Cook zucchini in boiling water, and when soft -- drain and mash it.
Add the cup of cheese, the egg, crackers, and butter to the pot, mix well, and then season with the nutmeg, salt, and pepper. (The recipe suggests doing this all in another bowl, but that's not necessary.)
Transfer the mixture to an oven-safe dish or ramekins (or keep it in the pan if it's oven-safe!), sprinkle with remaining cheese, and bake until the pudding thickens -- approximately 15-20 minutes.

Filed Under: Ingredients
Tags: budin de calabacita, BudinDeCalabacita, Mexican food, MexicanFood, mexico, vegetable pudding, VegetablePudding, vegetables, zucchini pudding, ZucchiniPudding