Saturday, September 8, 2012

Vegetable Casserole

We had a spurt of production from our vegetable garden and we weren't sure what to do with it. We found a vegetable casserole recipe, modified it, and were extremely happy with the results.

You'll need the following.

  • 9 x 9 Pyrex dish
  • Frying pan
  • Eggplant
  • Peppers
  • Tomatoes
  • Onion
  • Shredded mozzarella cheese
  • Breadcrumbs
  • Salt, pepper, and cooking oil (I used a mix of vegetable and olive oil)
  • 1 cup of tomato sauce
Here are the steps.
  1. Slice enough eggplant to cover the bottom of the Pyrex dish and fry it in the cooking oil. I cut the slices nice and thick so they wouldn't fall apart after cooking. You'll need two layers, one for the bottom and one for the top.
  2. Cover the bottom of the Pyrex dish with the eggplant in a neat layer.
  3. Slice the peppers and spread them on top of the eggplant. I used multiple kinds of peppers, including jalapeƱo. Note that the peppers are not cooked.
  4. Add salt and pepper to taste on the peppers. Sprinkle a little mozzarella cheese on them as well.
  5. Slice the tomatoes and spread them on top of the peppers in a neat layer. Again, keep the slices a bit thick. Note that the tomatoes are not cooked.
  6. Carmelize the onion. Spread the carmelized onion on top of the tomatoes.
  7. Add another layer of fried eggplant on top of the onion in a neat layer.
  8. Sprinkle a little mozzarella cheese on top of the eggplant. 
  9. Sprinkle a little breadcrumb on top of the mozzarella.
Preheat the oven to 375 and bake for about 25 minutes or until the top is brown and you see a little bubbling on the sides. Let it sit for about 5 minutes and cut into quarters. Have some bread with this on the side.
As an aside, avoid raw onion in this. It's too overpowering.