Beet the Clock

I had vowed a while back that I would make every recipe in VwaV before Veganomicon came out. I had said even Orange-Glazed Beets. Well, here they are:



And here they are frolicking on my dinner plate with Marinated Asian Tofu, sauteed swiss chard and roasted spaghetti squash. And they were good! I like beets!



And because wild blueberries were prolific at Farmboy, here are Sunny Blueberry Corn Muffins. I'm on a roll.



Is anyone else up for the challenge??

We had lots of tomatoes in our CSA basket this week, and I needed a meal that would use up a few at once. I didn’t want to make regular boring tomato sauce, as it can be too acidic for my liking. We had an eggplant in the fridge, so I made this dish. Warning: this is not a low-fat recipe! I wanted to make sure the eggplant was soft, and since eggplant absorbs a lot of oil when cooking, I used the minimum that I thought I could get away with.

Fresh Tomato Eggplant Pasta

1 large eggplant
5 large tomatoes
5 tblsp organic extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced*
5 white mushrooms, sliced
½ cup red wine
2 tsp organic sugar (if using red wine that isn’t sweet)
2 tsp sea salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tblsp fresh basil, chopped
1 can chickpeas

1 package organic large-shaped pasta, penne or rotini

Peel eggplant with a vegetable peeler and cut into 1” cubes. Submerge eggplant in a bowl of heavily salted water (like 2 heaping teaspoons) by placing a bowl upside-down over the cubes to keep those floaters underwater. Let sit for 30 mins, or as long as possible.

Put a large pot of water on to boil. Make a little X with a knife in bottom of each tomato. When the water is bubbling, drop tomatoes in. Let cook for 45 seconds, then remove tomatoes with slotted spoon and plunge into a bowl of cold water. The tomato skins should peel off easily with your hands. Chop naked tomatoes into 1” cubes.

Put the same big pot of water on the stove to boil for the pasta. That way there will be less dishes to wash. I’m lazy.

Rinse and drain eggplant. Place olive oil in a cast-iron skillet over med heat. Add the eggplant cubes and cook for 15 minutes, or until eggplant is completely brown and soft. Add the garlic and mushrooms. Cook for another 3 minutes. This is what it looks like at this point:



Add the red wine, salt, sugar and chickpeas, and simmer for 5 minutes, heating through. Mix vegetables with cooked pasta and serve.



*Since joining our CSA, I’ve learned that fresh garlic kicks butt over the dried up bulbs they sell at the grocery store. Farmer’s markets have huge amounts of garlic at this time of year. The garlic juice should drip out of the press, or it’s not fresh.