Kale and Mushroom Bread Pudding
Who likes a tasty savory bread pudding? If you answer: I Do! Then you’ll want to try this delicious Kale and Mushroom Bread Pudding.
I admittedly love the Kale and Mushroom combination, kind of like I love tomatoes with basil. These two ingredients just plain out match like the horse and carriage.
Besides being a tasty vegetable with many diverse uses, kale is also quite easy to grow. You can enjoy abundantly thriving kale in your backyard garden or in a large sized planter on your deck. Included among the best features of kale it seems is its consistency in length of continuous growth. In the northeast your kale may well keep producing until near Thanksgiving, in a warm fall, even beyond.
This means you can enjoy this delicious Kale and Mushroom Bread Pudding in any season when you have some lovely leftover stale bread ready to be put to use.
I like to use a really good thinly sliced rustic bread cut into pieces, some crust included too. Using crusty bread with an inner airy dough sliced in a slicer at the bread bakery seems to add delicious flavor and texture depth without being too chewy.
The seasoned milk infusion in the recipe adds on a little extra time in the preparation but is truly a key tip on taking your dish to a whole new flavor dimension. Adding some smoked cheese to the variation also contributes to this crazy delicious combination.
If you answered ‘I Do’ to enjoying a delicious savory bread pudding then grease up your gratin dish, I’ll bet this Kale and Mushroom Bread Pudding will become your new standby favorite!
Kale and Mushroom Bread Pudding
Notes
The secret in taking this bread pudding to its most flavorful level is infusing the milk prior to preparation, and using a smoked cheese.
Ingredients
- Butter or spray cooking oil such as Pam for greasing casserole dish
- For the seasoned milk: 2 ½ cups milk, 2 bay leaves, one small onion- halved, 6 peppercorns
- 4 tablespoons butter, halved
- 1 pound cremini mushrooms, wiped clean, sliced
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3 cups kale, chopped into small pieces
- coarse kosher salt, amounts indicated in recipe
- generous pinch ground nutmeg
- 3 large eggs
- 1/8 cup chopped parsley
- few grinds cracked black pepper
- 8-10 ¼ inch thick slices day old stale bread, torn into pieces, stale crusty loaf recommended
- 1 cup smoked gouda, shredded
- 1 cup cheddar, shredded
- ½ cup grated fresh Parmesan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease casserole dish, set aside.
- In a small saucepan on low temperature heat the milk with the bay leaves, onion, and peppercorns, once hot, turn off heat and let flavors infuse
- In a large nonstick pan, heat butter on medium high heat, swirl pan to cover the bottom, tumble in the mushrooms and let cook undisturbed for two minutes, shake pan, sprinkle over a good pinch of kosher salt, shake pan again and cook another minute or two until mushrooms are golden, transfer to a bowl.
- Wipe out pan from mushrooms using paper toweling. Heat pan on low heat, drop in the remaining two tablespoons butter, swirl pan to cover bottom, add in the onions and garlic and cook for around five minutes until translucent, transfer mixture to a bowl with the mushrooms.
- Wipe out pan from the onions and garlic, add in a couple cups of water, and bring to a boil, sprinkle in a good pinch of kosher salt, drop in the chopped kale, cook for two minutes or longer, until softened but still bright green. Drain kale, squeeze dry with paper toweling, then stir into the mushrooms, onion and garlic mixture
- Strain the cooled, seasoned milk into a large measuring cup, add in a good pinch of nutmeg, and stir
- Lightly beat eggs in a large glass bowl, pour the milk into the eggs, add in the chopped parsley, a good pinch of salt, and a few grinds of black pepper, whisk to combine.
- Line casserole dish with a layer of bread pieces filling in any open parts.
- Top the first layer of bread with the kale mushroom mixture, pour over about a third of the egg and milk mixture, and then sprinkle over half of the shredded cheese.
- Build another layer of bread pieces filling in any open parts, pour the remaining egg and milk mixture all over the top, and then sprinkle on the remaining cheese.
- Bake Kale and Mushroom Bread Pudding for twenty minutes, covered. Remove cover and bake another fifteen minutes, more or less depending on your oven, until custard is set, cheese is melted and bread pudding is hot throughout.
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