A delicious vegetarian recipe to use up your summer produce including tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant!

It’s time for another Secret Recipe Club Reveal Day and this time we are visiting Chile!

This month, I was assigned to Gloria @ Canela Kitchen and man, is she a prolific cook and blogger. Not only does she post all her recipes in English and Spanish but she’s been blogging since 2007, so her recipe archives are just bursting with ideas. (And BTW, canela means “cinnamon” in Spanish, in case you were wondering like I was.)

Since I knew I was getting a boatload of vegetables last week through my CSA, I headed straight to her Veggies section (after peaking in desserts and toying with making this Mango Dessert Express.)

But back to the veggies.

I pondered making Zucchini and Tomato Pizza and Zucchini and Ricotta Rolls and Shrimp and Zucchini Salad.

It really is a good thing that Gloria has so many yummy looking zucchini recipes because I got TEN zucchini this past week (my CSA share plus a friend’s who was out of town.) And because I got eggplant and tomatoes too, I decided to make her Eggplant Gratin which got morphed into this version (not to mention, the title got Americanized as overseas eggplant = aubergine and zucchini = courgette.)

I made just a few tweaks (used nonfat milk for the heavy cream, fresh tomatoes for tomato sauce and omitted the veggie broth.)

Tomato, Zucchini and Eggplant Gratin

A delicious vegetarian recipe to use up your summer produce including tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant!

• Author: by Deanna Segrave-Daly, RD
• Yield: 6 - 8 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large eggplants, sliced or coarsely chopped
• 1 large zucchini, sliced or coarsely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup nonfat milk, warmed in microwave
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan or other aged cheese, divided
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes
• 4 ounces sliced fresh mozzarella
• Fresh basil leaves

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add half of the eggplant and zucchini; saute for 4 to 5 minutes. Add to a 9-inch square baking dish. Return skillet to medium heat, add remaining oil, eggplant and zucchini. Saute for 4 to 5 minutes and add to baking dish. Season with salt and pepper.
3. In same skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour. Once flour is incorporated, whisk in milk. Cook until thickens (1 to 2 minutes) and then whisk in 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Pour over eggplant and zucchini. Mix well.
4. Gently mix in mozzarella cheese and tomatoes, top with remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes in the oven. Garnish with fresh basil before serving.

Notes

Adapted from Canela Kitchen’s [Eggplant Gratin|
http://canelakitchen.blogspot.com/2014/06/aubergines-au-gratin-berenjenas.html]

I gotta say, I couldn’t wait for this to come out of the oven. And then I actually had to wait overnight before I could even try it because it was already dark out, meaning photos needed to be taken the next day.

But, it was well worth the wait and why not eat some veggies for breakfast? Which I did right after the photo session ended.

For your eggplant and zucchini gluts, some yummy recipe ideas from Cooking Light:
Cooking Light Eggplant Recipes
Cooking Light Zucchini & Summer Squash Recipes

How are you cooking eggplant and zucchini these days?  Let me know – I never tire of hearing of new recipes!