Spring Veggies and Lentils, Italian-style

This recipe was inspired by not having gone grocery shopping this week, coming home from work, and seeing what could be thrown together in a half hour. The flavors were wonderful - fresh and sweet and bursting with flavor. It's kind of like what ratatouille would be if it were a little more substantial. (makes you wonder - how many dishes have been created because a cook somewhere had to use up the veggies before they went bad?) We had it with chicken on the side, but by increasing the portion sizes a little this could be a one-dish meal.

Am I cooking or painting? - check these colors!

Spring Veggies and Lentils, Italian-style

oil for sauteeing veggies (tablespoon?)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 medium zucchini, chopped

1 medium yellow (summer) squash, chopped

1 medium waxy potato, with skin, chopped

2 carrots, peeled, diced

2 cloves garlic, peeled, minced

Fresh garden herbs. I chopped fine:

about 1 tsp fresh marjoram

about 1 tsp rosemary

about 1/4 tsp thyme

about 1 tsp oregano

a couple of leaves of thai basil

salt and pepper to taste

1 15-oz can diced tomatoes

About 1/2 or 2/3 of a 15-oz can of cooked lentils, drained, rinsed.

In a large skillet or dutch oven, saute onion and celery until slightly softened. Add fresh herbs and cook for about a minute. Add vegetables, garlic, salt and pepper, and increase heat slightly - cook until slightly softened, stirring frequently. Turn heat to low and add tomatoes (and juice) and lentils, Stir and cover. Cook covered, checking frequently, until vegetables are done (about 10-15 min). Add a little water if needed, but not much - consistency should be fairly thick.

Serve with grated parmesan if desired. Serves 4

The Mondo Zucchini

As shown in a previous post, there was this zucchini that escaped the notice of my young harvesters until it was an enormous size. Smaller than a bread box, but bigger than a baby's arm. An impressive beast of a vegetable.

It sat on the counter staring me down for a few days. Such a large specimen might be seedy, maybe bitter. Zucchini bread was out of the question in 90-degree weather. Then dinner time rolled around one day and I remembered eggplant parmigiana. Eggplant is bitter, it's slimy - there is no way Giant Zuke wouldn't come out on top in a cook-off. 

As it turned out, it was a lot better than OK. It was excellent. And kind of pretty on the plate, if I do say so myself. This is more a food hack than a recipe, and maybe not something I'll ever make again (unless another zucchini goes astray and grows to enormous proportions) but if you, too, have a monster veggie in the garden give it a try.

Mondo-Zucchini Parmesan

Prep

- Make breading mix. I used bread crumbs, salt and pepper, some grated Parmesan cheese, and fresh minced oregano and basil from the garden.

- Whisk an egg in a shallow bowl, for dipping.

- Slice enormous zucchini into disks about 1/4 or 1/3 inch thick. (no need to remove skin)

Cook

- Heat some oil, about medium-high, in a non-stick pan. I used olive oil, and I had to keep adding more to keep it from sticking (so much for the low-cal vegetarian cuisine)

- Dip the zucchini in the egg 

- Coat thoroughly with breadcrumb mixture.

- Put each piece into the oil immediately after you coat it (not onto a plate - you'll lose your coating.)

- Cook about 4 minutes on each side, until nice and brown. I tossed some onion on top, too.

You'll be dipping and frying for a while. Test your first pieces to make sure they're cooked enough (neither mush nor crisp) and adjust heat. The photo shows my first batch, where the heat was a little high and the color a little too dark.

Sauce confession: while the other stuff was cooking, I sauteed some grated zucchini (no shortage here) with chopped onion and garlic, added a jar of storebought spaghetti sauce, let it all cook together for a while.

Put the eggplant on a serving plate like this 

Impressing the children with the complementary colors. Not

to make it look like you worked hard it it. I added a spoonful of spaghetti sauce, grated mozzarella, and snipped fresh basil.

We served this with whole-wheat spaghetti and sauce. Adults had the zucchini on top, but the kids asked for the zuke on the side and ate it as a finger-food. The lunch leftovers were even yummier. 

Servings? Depends on how mondo your zuke is. I made 2 serving plates worth of zucchini, enough for 4 good-sized dinner meals plus a couple of lunch servings.