The French culinary term gratin comes from the transitive verb gratiné meaning crust.  You can serve just about any vegetable as a gratin, the most popular probably is a simple potato gratin.  Other gratins I love to make are a summertime zucchini and squash gratin or a rich, cheesy cauliflower gratin in the colder months.  For a dish to be a gratin, you will see a brown, crunchy topping on the underlying vegetable.  Most times involving breadcrumbs and grated cheese, sometimes just breadcrumbs.  Also, a gratin is normally baked in a shallow casserole dish that aptly enough can be called a gratin dish.

For this vegetarian gratin, I sauteed baby spinach along with thinly sliced garlic and buttery chickpeas.  I stuffed a portobello mushroom cap with the mixture, topped them with Panko breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan cheese and a touch of olive oil.  Then you bake the stuffed mushrooms until they are tender and browned on top.  Serve this as a vegetarian main dish, or as an accompaniment to a rustic French dinner menu.

(To view this recipe, click on the blue title of the blog post above*)

Tagged: chickpeas, garlic, gratin, panko, Parmesan cheese, portobello mushrooms, spinach, stuffed mushrooms, stuffed portobellos, vegetarian