Zucchini, Tomato and Eggplant Casserole

This dish is a new version of the Zucchini Tomato Gratin I made a few months ago. It's been a unseasonably good and rainy here in NJ and I felt the need to make some comfort food. I had a cute little eggplant, some pretty green heirloom tomatoes and an interesting looking flying saucer squash. I sliced everything up, layered them in a casserole dish, covered everything with Daiya cheese and olives and baked it in the oven until the cheese was gooey and the veggies were soft. This meal was perfect for a cool rainy evening.

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Ratatouille Salad

I bought a round zucchini and a round eggplant at the farmers' market thinking I would make more veggie stacks.

And I bought these little tomatoes because they're so cute!

But then I saw this blog post on Organically Me with a recipe for ratatouille salad and decided to make it instead. Sadly, when I cut the zucchini open, it was very spongey, and I didn't think it would taste too good. So I ended up using some of the yellow and green squash I had instead. I chopped up the eggplant, squash, some mushrooms and some basil, added the cherry tomatoes and minced garlic and drizzled the whole mix with olive oil. I spread the veggies out over two baking sheets and cooked them for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Yes, I turned the oven on after saying I was going to do so this week, but it was totally worth it!

I also made the balsamic reduction mentioned in the post. It went really well with the veggies. This was super tasty and really pretty! Despite the fact that the oven had to be on, this was the perfect dish for the  summer veggies that are now in season.

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Stacks of Veggies!

I found a really cute little round zucchini at the farmers' market and couldn't resist buying it. I also bough eggplant and tomatoes. I thought it would be fun to stack them, lasagna style. 

I made batches of cashew ricotta and spinach pesto. 

I stacked slices of the zucchini, eggplant and tomato and layered the ricotta and pesto in between.

The stacks ended up being much higher than I expected! I cooked them at 400 degrees for about an hour. They were really delicious, but I think I've had the oven on way too much lately and it has been horribly hot all week. Back to raw meals next week!

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Lebanese Eggplant Stew

Yesterday was another busy day, so I started up the slow cooker before I left for work in the morning. This time I made Lebanese Eggplant Stew, which is another recipe from The Vegetarian Slow Cooker. The dish consists of diced eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, onion, garlic (I used shallots), cinnamon, allspice and red pepper flakes. I chopped all the veggies the night before so I wouldn't have much work to do in the morning. The recipe didn't call for any any liquid, which I thought was strange, so I added a little vegetable broth. I also added some chickpeas to make it more of complete meal. When I got home, I cooked up a brown and wild rice mixture in my rice cooker. I added a little olive oil to the stew and topped it with chopped olives and parsley.

This was a good meal, but next time I make it, I think I'll omit the cinnamon and allspice. I'd also like to try it with a tomato sauce base instead of broth.


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