Cooking Light calls this dish a “gratin.” But I’m not so sure.
Definition of “gratin”: a brown crust formed on food that has been cooked au gratin. (“au gratin”: covered with bread crumbs or grated cheese and browned)
Definition of “quiche”: an unsweetened custard pie usually having a savory filling
Definition of “strata”: a bread pudding-like layered comfort food casserole made with eggs, cheese and stale cubed bread.
Honestly, I think the Tomato, Squash and Red Pepper Gratin is a mixture of all three.
I’m going to be honest with you – this isn’t a “30 minute” meal. More along the lines of an hour and 30. My suggestion – prep everything before you start cooking. The only changes I made were leaving out the thyme and using a savory spice mixture I had on hand (dried), I used gluten-free bread to make bread crumbs and instead of beefsteak tomatoes, I used romas from the garden. Oh, and I used skim milk instead of 1%.
The texture of the final product is more quiche-like to me. But it is a gratin because there are bread crumbs on top. And it’s also strata-like because there are eggs and cheese (but no cubes of bread).
The dish was worth all the time and energy – I ate it all.week.long. Super healthy, filling and delicious.
