Broccoli and cheese nuggets

Today my three part burger meal series comes to an end, and I shall end it with my recipe for broccoli and cheese nuggets (have a look at the previous posts: basic burger buns and pea and leek burgers). Don't you also think that vegetarians are still discriminated by the poor choice on vegetarian nuggets? If you're lucky you can get either plain cheese or cheese and chilli nuggets, but I think that a nugget is a great way of combining different vegetables and cheese, and I promise you to make other ones as well in the future.

These broccoli and cheese nuggets are oven baked, so there's neither playing around with hot oils, nor is there any need for a deep fryer. That's why I claim that these are more healthy in comparison to the deep fried ones, as no fat (or additives!) is used. Vegetarian nuggets make quite a nice change to the normal fries and burger combination. You might even be able to convert some broccoli haters with these. I have already managed to do so! So, here's how.

Ingredients to make about 12 chunky nuggets

1 broccoli

1 shallot

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp oregano

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

180 g mild Cheddar

2 eggs

100 g breadcrumbs

Method

Steam the broccoli florets until they are cooked soft, and then let them cool. Chop them into fine pieces.

Also chop the shallot and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil until soft. Season them with oregano, salt and pepper and let cool.

Grate the cheese and combine the broccoli, shallots and cheese.

Separate the eggs; add the yolks to the nugget mix and set the whites to side.

Use half of the breadcrumbs (50 g) to the mix and the other half for rolling the nuggets in. Prepare a production line with two plates with the beaten egg whites on one and the breadcrumbs on the other.

Shape small nuggets of the mix. I made mine triangle shaped, but you can shape them as you like. Roll the nuggets in the egg whites first and then in the breadcrumbs. Then set them to a baking dish.

Bake them at 200C for about 20 minutes until the surfaces are crispy.

Serve with a dip as a part of a burger meal. I had the Lyme Bay Winery's gorgeous Spicy Tomato Chutney with Jack Ratt Cider on the side. This is a really good chutney!

So, this was my vegetarian burger meal suggestion posted in three parts, how did you find it?

Your VegHog