The end of summer and beginning of fall is such a joy with the crisp morning air, beautiful sunny days, colourful changing leaves and the bountiful harvest you can get from your backyard gardens and local farmer’s markets!
This month Carter dove into our new CK Vegetable Gardens for a seasonal recipe to share. Pretty much all of these ingredients were sourced directly from our gardens recently and can be found in your own gardens or at your local farmer’s markets right now. Fall is a great time to eat seasonally and try new things.
Check out this delicious CK Garden Ratatouille! (it’s vegetarian and vegan!)
Ingredients:
Vegetables
-
- Yellow Zucchini
- Green Zucchini
- Eggplant
- Tomatoes
Herbs
-
- Basil
- Thyme
- Parsley
- Garlic
- Olive Oil
- Salt and Pepper
Sauce
-
- Onion
- Olive Oil
- Garlic
- Red Pepper
- Green Pepper
- Salt and Pepper
- Diced Tomatoes
- Tomato Sauce (homemade, store bought or a can of crushed tomatoes)
- Fresh Basil
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 375F
- Slice zucchinis, eggplant, tomatoes into 1/8” slices
- Mix together herbs and olive oil
- Toss/coat sliced vegetables in herb mix (set aside)
- Make tomato sauce
- Sweat* onions, garlic, and peppers. Season with Salt & Pepper.
- Add tomatoes and tomato sauce
- Finish with basil
- Remove from heat
- For a smoother sauce, puree it before proceeding
- Begin arranging herbed vegetables in alternating order (e.g. zucchini, eggplant, zucchini, eggplant…)
- Place the alternating vegetables on top of sauce, working from the outside of the pan to the middle (here are some visual cues/inspiration)
- Cover and bake 40 minutes
- Serve hot with toasted bread – ENJOY!
*What is sweating an onion? When cooking onions the first stage is called sweating and usually happens very quickly. You are cooking the onions by maintaining a high enough heat to get them cooking, but not so high that they begin to brown. The heat will draw the moisture out of the onions, thus ‘sweating‘ them. Heat up some oil in a saucepan over a medium heat. When the pan is warm add the onion (and other items) and stir well with a spatula. Turn the heat down to low. You want to cook the onions gently so that do not get any colour on them.
Tips: Use an oven safe pan, cast iron works great + Save a little pinch of herbs to garnish each plate when serving
