Easter Eggplant

    There's a joke in my house.  Every time I buy an eggplant, my husband says, "How long before I throw this one in the garbage?"  A few years back I got into the habit of buying eggplants and never getting around to cooking them.  In fact, I did that with a lot of food.  Now I try to cook around what I have, not what I am in the mood for that day. So, naturally he was skeptical when I bought two eggplants this week.  I am happy to report that the latest eggplants did not rot in vain and actually make it to the dinner table in a delicious dish I will add to our recipe binder. This recipe does take awhile, but it produced a big batch.  I was tempted to skip the extra step of letting the eggplant sit, but as soon as I salted it, my neighbor pulled up to deliver eggs.  She has her own chickens and her eggs are the best. By the time we were done chatting I only had 15 minutes left on the eggplant prep and I still had to prep the other ingredients. The timing worked out perfectly.  Next time I will have to freeze some so I have it on hand.  We just ate it for lunches and never tucked away any in the freezer.

Ratatouille
from: Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Cookbook
I modified the recipe to what I had on hand.

2 eggplants
2 zucchini
2 green peppers- I used 1
2 red peppers- I threw in some canned red peppers at the end instead
4 onions- I think I used 1
6 tomatoes- I substituted 1 can Muir Glen Fire Roasted tomatoes, including liquid
6 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1/4 cup fresh basil- I used dried
1/4 cup fresh dill- I used dried
3 1/2 tsp sea salt
black pepper

Peel and cube eggplant. Toss with 2 tsp salt and cover for one hour.  Transfer to colander and rinse well. Pat dry.  This reduces the bitterness in eggplant. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  *Saute eggplant and vegetables in batches. Toss the herbs, garlic, sea salt and pepper into remaining liquid and cook until fragrant. Coat a roasting pan with olive oil.  Bake uncovered for an hour.  Serve over brown rice or as is.
* I skipped the sauteing of vegetables and spices and went straight to putting the vegetables and spices together to roast in the oven.  Afterwards, I added some roasted red peppers.  It was delicious.