Make an oven dish

Video: Making a Handmade ceramic covered oval baking dish on the pottery wheel with a slab bottom and lid.

Content

To step
Method 1 of 6: Mastering the basics
Method 2 of 6: Make pasta dishes
Method 3 of 6: Make rice dishes
Method 5 of 6: Make regional casseroles
Tips
Warnings
Necessities

A traditional oven dish consists of a combination of ingredients cooked in the oven. From pasta to meat, vegetables to rice, they can all be put together in a refractory dish to form one dish. Casseroles are ideal for combining leftover food, turning a small amount of protein into a full dinner, or reviving produce that has been in the fridge for a while. Since most casseroles are prepared in the same way, we'll cover the basics first in this article. Then we will discuss pasta dishes, rice dishes, vegetable dishes and dessert dishes. Prepare a delicious oven dish yourself? Then quickly read on at step 1.

To step

Method 1 of 6: Mastering the basics

Purchase a good quality casserole. All kinds of ingredients are combined in oven dishes: meat, vegetables, dough and so on. Some products will be raw, while other food groups will need to be pre-cooked or cooked first. Traditional casseroles are usually square or rectangular and are made of steel, earthenware or glass. Most casseroles are savory and topped with breadcrumbs or cheese.
Choose a starch product. Most oven dishes are based on a starch product. These are usually pre-cooked before they are added to the oven dish and can be combined well with protein-rich products or vegetables. Although you can add all kinds of ingredients to oven dishes, most variants consist of the following products:
- Potatoes. Pre-cooked potatoes can be a good base for breakfast or dinner casseroles, as well as being used as a topping for a traditional English shepherd's pie. If you want to use potatoes in your oven dish, you can also get pre-cooked potatoes from the supermarket. Potatoes go particularly well with beef or other red meat.
- Pasta. From egg noodles to mustaccioli, pasta is the perfect base for an oven dish. With a delicious sauce or cheese, pasta dishes can be made both sweet and savory, so you can eat them all year round. Lasagna is of course the classic oven pasta, but by trying different types, you will automatically find out what you like best.
- Rice. This food is widely consumed in both the Middle East and the American Midwest and combines well with chicken or other poultry. White rice is a great base, but wild rice, jasmine rice or even black rice can also provide your casserole with a wonderfully surprising taste.
- Other grain products. Why should you limit yourself to rice? Quinoa, barley, wheat or other whole grain products can also be a good basis for a healthy casserole, especially when combined with rice. In Egyptian koshari, pasta, lentils and rice are used as the basis for all kinds of spices and flavors. Why not?
Choose a type of meat, a vegetable or a combination of the two. For most casseroles, you will first fry the meat and vegetables and then add them to the casserole. To finish the dish, a layer of breadcrumbs or cheese is sprinkled over it.
- Chicken and other meats must be cooked before adding them to the casserole. However, oven dishes to which a lot of moisture is added sometimes require raw meat so that it is cooked together with the other ingredients. Which way you choose depends on your recipe.
- Carrots, onions and other root vegetables are great additions to any casserole. Because all ingredients are cooked together, you can easily add some herbs to low-flavor vegetables.
- For vegetarians lentils are an ideal meat substitute in most recipes. Of course you can also use other meat substitutes such as seitan or tofu.
Choose a binder to bind the ingredients together. A sauce or egg mixture is added to many casseroles to achieve this. In Midwestern cuisine, cream or mushroom soup is often added, but béchamel sauce, curry, pasta sauce or other ingredients are also common.
Fry the ingredients and place them in a greased oven dish. Make sure that all meat products are cooked and the vegetables are soft, but do not fall apart yet. Before you put the ingredients in the dish, it is best to grease it with butter or oil.
- In some casseroles, the ingredients are added to the dish in layers, just like with lasagna or moussaka. Of course you can also just mix the ingredients in the bowl.
Close the dish with a lid or aluminum foil. Remove the lid or foil the last few minutes of the baking time so that your casserole gets a crispy layer.
- The baking time will vary from dish to dish and depends on the amounts and ingredients added. Casseroles with most of the ingredients already cooked will only take 10 to 15 minutes, while raw meat or uncooked rice dishes will usually be in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour.
When all the ingredients from your oven dish are already cooked, you can also choose to simply add the topping and place the dish uncovered under the grill. Some examples of toppings are:
- thinly sliced potato strips
- outings
- Parmesan cheese
- potato chips crumbs
- cracker crumbs
- mashed potatoes

Method 2 of 6: Make pasta dishes

Make baked macaroni and cheese. One of the easiest, but at the same time tastiest oven dishes is baked macaroni with cheese. By adjusting the amount of cheese versus macaroni, you can make the dish firmer or more squishy.
- Boil about 250 grams of macaroni to fill a square casserole. For a larger baking dish you will have to cook the whole bag of macaroni. Cook the pasta until al dente. Then drain the macaroni and rinse with cold water. Now pour the macaroni into the greased oven dish.
- Melt two tablespoons of butter in a frying pan and stir in two tablespoons of flour. Keep stirring to prevent the mixture from burning. When the stuff is brown, add about half a liter of milk to the mixture little by little. Beat the ingredients well to mix the flour and milk together until it becomes a thick liquid.
- Add salt and pepper to taste and give the liquid time to thicken. When the mixture starts to boil, you can add about 200 to 250 grams of grated cheddar. However, other cheeses are also suitable. Keep stirring the liquid until the cheese has melted.
- Pour the cheese mixture over the pasta in the baking dish. Optionally add fried mushrooms, minced meat, sausage, raw tomato, onion or garlic. Place the dish in the oven at 180 ° C for about 15 minutes. Finally, add breadcrumbs or Parmesan cheese and place the dish under the grill for a while.
- Do you prefer creamy macaroni and cheese?, then add more milk and use less macaroni. Do you like a firmer dish?, then make less sauce and choose breadcrumbs as the topping.
Make lasagna. To make a simple lasagna, alternate layers of pasta sheets, mozzarella, Parmesan or ricotta (or all three, of course) with pasta sauce. Bake the casserole until the cheese has melted and the pasta sheets are cooked.
- Fry the meat and possibly the vegetables you want to add to your lasagna. For example, you can use spinach, mushrooms, zucchini or sausage in the oven dish. Alternate layers of pasta with the sauce, cheese and other ingredients until the dish is full. Finish the lasagna by pouring a beaten egg over the mixture or adding a layer of Parmesan cheese.
- Lasagna needs about 25 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 ° C. In the last minutes of baking, remove the lid and let the oven dish cook for another 25 minutes. Do not cut the dish immediately, but wait 15 minutes before serving it on the plates.

Method 3 of 6: Make rice dishes

Make a casserole with turkey and wild rice. A great way to use leftover chicken in another dish is to use it in a delicious casserole with wild rice and vegetables. One of the advantages of making a rice dish is that you don't necessarily have to pre-cook the rice, but you can let it cook in the oven. Of course you can also use pre-cooked rice.
- Fry two strips of bacon in a skillet. Add half the diced onion and a few cloves of garlic. When the onion is translucent, you can add two chopped carrots, a piece of celery and about 450 grams of turkey breast. Bake the turkey for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Pour about 500 grams of wild rice into your casserole and add about 700 milliliters of water, a cup of cream or a can of mushroom soup, half a teaspoon of marjoram, thyme and rosemary. Season the mixture with salt and pepper if necessary, then add the chicken mixture and mix well. Close the dish with a lid and put it in the oven at 180 ° C for half an hour. Before serving, check whether most of the moisture has been absorbed and the rice is cooked.
- Other additions or replacements range from chicken or other poultry to the turkey and frozen peas, water chestnuts, allspice, fresh mushrooms, beans or asparagus. Just add what you like and replace ingredients that don't taste good to you. Cream, chicken soup or milk are also great ingredients to use as a thickener.
Make a bean dish. A hearty example of a Midwestern feast is the bean dish. Very few ingredients are needed for this creamy side dish. And if you ever need cream or mushroom soup for anything, this is it!
- Gather the ingredients and combine about 750 grams of chopped beans with a can of cream or mushroom soup.
- Add about 125 milliliters of milk and season the dish with soy sauce, salt and pepper.
- Spoon the mixture into a greased baking dish and put it in the oven at about 180 ° C for about 20 minutes until all ingredients are warm. Finish the dish with 200 grams of onions and let them brown under the grill for a few minutes.
Make a summer pumpkin dish. Summer pumpkins such as the yellow variety or the zucchini have little taste of their own, but if you combine them with some cheese and breadcrumbs, they make a delicious side dish.
- Cut two pumpkins (about a kilo) in pieces and fry them in some butter together with some finely chopped onion. Add about 200 milliliters of water, 2 beaten eggs, about 200 grams of grated cheddar (or any other cheese) and salt and pepper.
- Mix the ingredients well and pour them into an oven dish. Sprinkle some cracker crumbs on top and add a tablespoon of melted butter if desired. Place the dish in the oven at 200 ° C for 20 minutes until the pumpkin looks a nice golden brown.
- Other additions or replacements are cherry tomatoes, fresh dill or other summer herbs and bacon. You can also use this recipe to prepare winter pumpkin and in that case you can easily combine with sweet potatoes and carrots.
Make a broccoli cauliflower dish. To give some life to cruciferous vegetables, cheese is the best remedy. Together with breadcrumbs, this is a winning combination. It may not be the healthiest, but it is the most delicious way to eat broccoli. Start by cutting a head of broccoli and about half a cauliflower into pieces or by taking a bag of each vegetable out of the freezer.
- Fry half an onion over medium heat in some butter and add two teaspoons of flour.
- Keep stirring well to prevent the mixture from burning. Then add half a liter of milk and keep stirring until the mixture thickens. Then sprinkle about 100 grams of Parmesan cheese in the pan and add half a package of cream cheese (about 100 grams).
- Herb the mixture with a teaspoon of thyme, oregano and dill. If you like some spice, you can also add a quarter teaspoon of cayenne to the sauce.
- Toss the broccoli and cauliflower into the cheese mixture and then pour the entire contents of the pan into a baking dish. Sprinkle some breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese over the cheese-covered vegetables and put the dish in the oven at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes.
Make a casserole with roasted winter squash and quinoa. A common complaint about vegetable dishes is that cheese and cream make the dishes very unhealthy. While mushroom cream or other cheese sauces are delicious, there are also more nutritious ways to prepare vegetables. By combining quinoa - a perfect protein source full of grains - with roasted pumpkin, you create a healthy, but just as delicious dish.
- Cut a medium sized pumpkin into pieces, remove the seeds and roast it at about 200 ° C on a baking tray in the oven. Drizzle some olive oil over the squash pieces and bake them in a frying pan for about 20 minutes until they are nice and soft. If you like pumpkin pieces better than mashed pumpkin, you should peel and cut the vegetables into smaller pieces before roasting them.
- Fry a diced half onion in a skillet, add 2 or 3 finely chopped garlic cloves and about 200 grams of quinoa. Stir the mixture well and add about 350 milliliters of water.
- Bring the quinoa to the boil and then let it simmer with the lid on the pan for about 15 minutes over medium heat. Add salt and pepper if necessary, mix 200 grams of chopped spinach or cabbage through the whole and finish the dish with 50 grams of dried cranberries, 50 grams of finely chopped walnuts and two beaten eggs.
- Pour the contents of the pan into a greased baking dish and add the roasted pumpkin. If you want, you can add 100 grams of Swiss cheese, but you can also leave it out. Place the dish in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Method 5 of 6: Make regional casseroles

Make rice pudding in a casserole dish. Casseroles don't always have to be savory. Fried rice pudding is a delicious dish to end a spicy meal. This is how you make it:
- Pour 200 grams of cooked white rice (or brown rice, if you prefer), about 500 milliliters of milk and 250 milliliters of water into an oven dish. Add two beaten eggs, 100 grams of brown sugar, 50 grams of chopped walnuts and raisins. Season the mixture with cinnamon, nutmeg, some salt and half a teaspoon of vanilla. Place the oven dish for about half an hour at about 160 ° C in the oven until it has a nice brown layer.
Make oatmeal from the oven. You can prepare oatmeal in the evening and put it in the oven in the morning for a delicious hot breakfast. It is a delicious base for all fruits and nuts you want to add.
- Use a mixing bowl to combine raw oats, 500 ml milk and 250 ml water. Add 100 grams of brown sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Add some dried fruit or nuts to the mixture if you like. Close the bowl with a lid and put it in the fridge overnight.
- Spoon the oatmeal into a casserole the next morning and put it in the oven at 180 ° C for half an hour until it is nicely browned. Combine the oatmeal with fresh fruit or a spoonful of cinnamon sugar. Peaches, apples and pears all taste great with this dish.
Make bread pudding. A good way to give old bread a new life is to use it in an oven dish. Although bread pudding can be both sweet and savory, this dessert variety is best known, especially in the southern United States.
- Use an oven dish to tear about 6 slices of bread into pieces. In a separate bowl, beat three eggs with 500 milliliters of milk, 100 grams of brown sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla and cinnamon. Add 50 grams of nuts or dried fruit. Pour this mixture over the bread and place the oven dish at 180 ° C in the oven for about 45 minutes.
- To make savory bread pudding, you can replace the sugar with grated cheese, dried sage and oregano and use rosemary instead of cinnamon.

Tips

Make sure that the flavors of the ingredients you add to the dish go well together. When using leftovers, consider how they are seasoned and select other ingredients based on that.
Your oven dish should be able to feed 4 adults.
You can also keep your casserole in the freezer for a while instead of putting it in the oven. This way you always have a healthy meal at hand in case you have little time to cook.