My very veggie lentil bake is such a hit that I thought this whole 'very veggie' thing could be a bit of a recurring theme here on AYB. Probably a theme that will only recur this once, but still. One batch of these very veggie oat bars contains a whole courgette (zucchini), 3 carrots and 3 spring onions, along with oats, eggs and plenty of grated cheese - all good ingredients to make a good savoury oat bar!
These very veggie oat bars are great for lunch with a dollop of coleslaw and a bit of salad - and they're tidy enough to pop in a lunchbox too. Makes a change from a soggy cheese sandwich! They're firm but moist, and great eaten warm or cold. Just bake them up at the weekend, and since you can get about 9 pieces from each batch, they'll see you through the next couple of weeks - store them in the freezer and thaw a couple of pieces at a time.
And just in case you thought these oat bars would be complicated to make, you're wrong! There's no pre-cooking required (who has the time?) - you can literally just mix all the ingredients in a big bowl, then bake. The thing that took the longest for me was grating the veggies and cheese, but if you have a food processor that will do the job for you, you'll be even quicker!
This recipe actually took a few attempts to get right - they didn't have enough flavour at first. This time, my main aim was to impart as much flavour as I could, but still making sure the recipe stayed as simple as possible. Spring onions are as tasty as regular onions, without needing any pre-cooking. One big dollop of pesto makes the whole batch really tasty - I used tomato and chilli pesto, which worked really well, but any flavourful pesto will do (you can always add a pinch of chilli powder too if your pesto's not a spicy one). Fresh herbs, extra mature cheese, a generous pinch of salt and pepper... really tasty!
Do you fancy these very veggie oat bars in your packed lunch this week?
Very veggie oat bars
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Print Pin CommentIngredients
- 1 medium courgette (zucchini), grated (mine was around 315g / 11oz / 2 cups when grated)
- 3 medium carrots, grated (mine were around 200g / 7oz / 1 ¾ cups when grated)
- 225 g extra mature cheddar cheese, grated (~ 2 ¼ cup when grated)
- 150 g (~ 1 ½ cups) rolled oats
- 80 g (~ ½ cup) self-raising flour
- Few sprigs fresh basil or parsley, roughly chopped
- 3 spring onions, sliced
- 2 tablespoon pesto (I used tomato and chilli pesto)
- 4 eggs
- 75 ml (~ ¼ cup) milk
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme or parsley
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Oil for greasing
Instructions
- Add the grated courgette (zucchini), grated carrot, grated cheese, oats, flour, chopped herbs, and spring onions to a large mixing bowl. Mix to combine. Then add the pesto, eggs, milk, dried herbs, and a good pinch of salt and pepper, and stir thoroughly until well mixed.
- Grease a suitably sized baking dish, and transfer the oat mixture to the dish. Smooth out the top, and cover loosely with foil (remember the mixture will rise a little due to the self-raising flour). Bake at 190°C (Gas Mark 5 / 375°F) for around an hour, then remove the foil, and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until crisped up to your liking.
- Leave to cool, or slice and serve straight away.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
Note: Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on exactly what ingredients you choose. Information above is for 1 slice, or 1/9 of the recipe.
If you're not sick of oat bars yet, these raspberry and blueberry oaty breakfast bars are great too!
Kacey says
What size tin would you recommend for this please?
Becca @ Easy Cheesy Vegetarian says
Mine was about 8 x 8 inches :)
Sara Lefquihi says
Super easy and ALL the family loved these (pretty rare these days! 🙄🙄) I added some chopped olives as they're a crowd pleaser with my little ones- yum yum! 😋
Becca @ Easy Cheesy Vegetarian says
Olives sound like they'd be brilliant in these! Glad you enjoyed them :)
Carmen says
Thank you for this recipe. I just don't have a sweet tooth at all so can't do smoothies or cereals or granola or fruit bars, especially not for breakfast. This is right up my street.
Kristen says
Have you attempted to make these in a cupcake or mini loaf pan for individual servings?
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche says
Hi Kristen! I haven't, but I'm sure it would work fine - you might need to adjust the cooking time a little, as I imagine they'll cook a bit more quickly (and get more crispy) in a cupcake tin :)
Thapelo Kooreng says
Yummy.I like it
Annabel says
These do look good! I bet your small person loves them, too, no?
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche says
Yes!! Except I've been giving her my first attempt, which didn't have the pesto, and had less cheese, so less salt overall... she doesn't care that the first attempt was a bit tasteless haha. I cut them into squares and froze :)
Heather says
Becca, these look delicious! I'm going to make this at the weekend. I'm always running out of ideas for something to take to work for lunch, so definitely going to give these a go! Thanks
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche says
Thanks Heather, hope you like them!