Asparagus, sun-dried tomato, cheese and olive bread

We made this bread as a not-so-common thing to try with asparagus for May's Sweet Romania challenge, and also because we wanted to try a all-in-one meal bread that tasted like the Mediterranean kitchen. Not too complicated to make, this was yummy. Enjoy it with a bowl of clear soup, if you can. :)
Recipe adapted from here.



Ingredients (makes one small loaf):

• 100 ml olive oil
• 200 g flour
• 250 g green asparagus spears
• 3 large eggs
• 100 ml milk
• 100 g sun-dried tomatoes
• 150 g Gouda cheese, grated
• handful of black olives, pitted
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon rosemary

Heat oven to 190 degrees C. Get the sun-dried tomatoes:

Chop them up finely:

Wash the asparagus:

Cut each spear into 3 pieces:

Heat up some salted water and when it's boiling drop the asparagus pieces in it. Boil them for 2 minutes, then cool with running cold water (it preserves their beautiful color). After that, mix the flour, baking powder, beaten eggs, olive oil, milk and seasonings into an even, fluid batter:

Put the boiled asparagus (reserving 5 pieces), the olives (reserving a few), sun-dried tomatoes and 100 g of the grated cheese into it and mix:

Line a small loaf tray (ours was 30 cm long) with baking paper and pour the whole thing into it. Sprinkle the remaining 50 g cheese on it and decorate with the reserved asparagus and olives:

Put in the preheated oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, until it's golden brown and a skewer introduced in the middle comes out clean. Take out, allow to cool, slice and dig in! :)