Wednesday night before I realized it was Wednesday and that I wouldn’t have time to pick up my mess in the kitchen, I decided to take on the challenge of emptying out the fridge. There were veggies in there that I a) didn’t know what to do with and b) didn’t want to go to waste. So I visited one of my favorite blogger’s page, Joy the Baker, and found this recipe. And knew that I could tweak it enough for what I had waiting on hand.
Veggie Nuggets
Ingredients
- 1 bulb of fennel (Field Goods)
- 1 bunch of fresh carrots, approximately 8 medium carrots (Field Goods)
- 1 yellow onion
- 2 cloves of garlic (parents’ garden)
- 2 handfuls of fingerling potatoes (Denison Farm share)
- 5-6 cups of fresh spinach (Field goods)
- 1 egg (Dooley Farm)
- flour
- breadcrumbs
- EVOO
- salt, pepper and favorite seasonings
I preheated the oven to 400 degrees. While that was warming up, I lightly coated the carrots, fennel pieces (I separated it), fingerlings and big four pieces of onion with EVOO and salt and pepper. I placed them on a baking sheet and roasted them for about 25 minutes. The carrots I hadn’t peeled; just gave them a good scrub and trim. The purple was too pretty.
After they were all roasted and pretty soft, I put them all into the food processor along with the garlic and handfuls of spinach. You can leave it on the chunky side, or whip it up more like I did (my thought being it would be easier to work with). I mixed in some seasoning: red pepper flakes, sesame seeds, dried oregano and pepper. The options are endless and curry would have been a great addition. Place the mixture into the fridge to cool down and firm up.
After finishing up an episode of Breaking Bad or which ever show/past time activity you prefer, return to the kitchen to coat, dip and toss. But first, preheat the oven at 425 degrees. You know the drill: coat with flour, dip in egg, and toss in breadcrumbs. Place the nuggets onto your lightly greased baking sheet. Our nuggets were scooped using an ice cream scooper and pressed slightly so that they weren’t in a ball shape. This recipe yielded 16 nuggets.
Once formed, pop them into the oven for ten minutes. Take ‘em out, flip, and pop back in for seven more minutes. They will be brown. They will be crsipy. And they will be delicious! Dip them into your favorite sauce (i.e. hot ranch, keppy, bbq) or put them into a wrap with extra veggies and dressing. I didn’t feel bad devouring 6 of them myself in one seating.
*Side note: I previously mentioned that I hated fennel. But I refused to let it go to waste. With it mixed in, I could barely taste the licorice flavor and it had gotten sweeter when roasted. I don’t know if I’d ever specifically buy it however, if it showed up in the share again I’d know exactly what to do with it.
Enjoy!
