How to Make Savory Bread Pudding Recipe with Chard and Carrots (video)

Culinary instructor, and food activist Katherine Deumling demonstrates how to make a savory bread pudding dish from leftover artisan bread, a great way to make use of some of your leftover ingredients.

Savory Bread Pudding with Chard and Carrots Recipe:

This is another wonderful dinner (or brunch) dish to make when you have little on hand but need a filling meal without a run to the store. I often have ends of bread lying around, and always have milk and eggs and an onion or two and some herbs – and with that you have a meal. You can use almost any vegetable you have on hand and you can add bacon or sausage if you like as well. You can make it drier with more bread or more custardy with more milk and/or eggs. The point is don’t feel you half to follow the below quantities and just use the technique to use up whatever you have or use your favorite veggies/herbs. It also makes excellent leftovers either served at room temperature or reheated.

You can also make this dish with spinach and herbs or other things that don’t need sautéing ahead of time and you can just add them to the custard and bread, making for an even quicker and easier meal.

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs
• 3 cups milk
• 5-6 large slices bread, cubed (or varies ends for a total of about 5-6 cups of cubed bread)
• ½ an onion, diced
• 1 small bunch chard, washed, stems diced and leaves cut into ribbons
• 2 carrots, washed thinly sliced or diced
• couple of sprigs of parsley or chives, chopped (optional)
• grated cheese (cheddar, or parmesan or crumbled feta or goat cheese) (optional)
• salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 (or 400 if you’re in a hurry).
2. Cube the bread. In a large bowl whisk the eggs and milk.
3. Preheat oven to 375 (or 400 if you’re in a hurry).
4. Cube the bread.
5. In a large bowl whisk the eggs and milk.
6. Salt and pepper generously and add the chopped herbs.
7. Heat a little olive oil in a sauté pan, add onions and carrots and sauté for about 10 minutes until softened.
8. Add the chard and sauté for another 3-4 minutes.
9. Add sautéed veggies to bread mixture.
10. Pour into a 9 x 13 baking dish, top with grated or crumbled cheese, if using and bake for about 30 minutes, or until set and slightly browned on top. Again if you’re in a hurry turn on the broiler for the last few minutes to get the cheese and top nice and crusty.

Note: You can assemble the bread pudding in the morning and let is rest in the fridge all day before baking. It’s actually even better if the bread has time to really soak up the custard.