Aug
11

What Do I Do With All These Tomatoes?

photo 6It seems like one minute your tomato plants are covered with green, hard unripe tomatoes and the next minute, all of them are bursting red and ready to be picked! After harvesting these red gems, my husband presented me with more ripe tomatoes than I knew what to do with. I erroneously thought that the only solution would be to make tomato sauce which would use as many as possible all at once. But then I’d have tons of sauce that wouldn’t keep fresh for very long. So this simple, yummy recipe grew from this plethora of red juicy beauties. You can call this a casserole or a lasagna or a strata—I think, by definition, all these terms work.

If you want a more lasagna-type feeling, add a layer of vegan mozzarella cheese after the tomato layers. I wanted to keep it simply veggie but when the next crop comes in, I might add cheese.  As is, it’s substantial enough to serve as the main dish with some sauteed broccolini on the side, perhaps, or this can be the side dish to an entree, as well.  It was even delicious cold the next day.

Of course, you don’t need to be growing your own tomatoes to make this veggie packed dish. When you choose tomatoes at the farmers market or store, the vine-ripened ones or ripe plum tomatoes will work best.

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Roasted Eggplant and Fresh Vine-Ripened Tomato Casserole

2 medium eggplants, peeled and sliced lengthwise, approximately 1/4 inch thick

10 vine-ripened medium tomatoes, thinly sliced

4 tbs extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup dry bread crumbs

4 Tbs minced garlic

1 fresh lemon

1/2 cup of nutritional yeast

chopped fresh herbs: chives, parsley, rosemary, basil

salt & Pepper to taste

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Method:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2) Oil a baking sheet and arrange the eggplant slices slightly overlapping each other.

3) Brush the eggplant with oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for about 15 minutes

4) Oil a large shallow baking dish and layer as follows:

• a layer of eggplant (half of the amount)

• a layer of tomatoes (half of the amount)

• spread 2 tbs of minced garlic

• squirt of fresh lemon all over the tomatoes

• sprinkle half of the fresh herbs

• a thin layer of half the bread crumbs

• a thin layer of half nutritional yeast

5) Repeat the layering and season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil

6) Bake for 20-25 minutes in preheated oven, until top is golden.

7) Let cool for 5 minutes and serve

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Enjoy!

xox Ellen

VAP Photo of me retouchedDSCF0406-150x150

 

Comments

  1. Helen Maxman says:

    Yum! This dish looks delicious! And the tomatoes are beautiful—what a feeling of accomplishment you must have!!!!

  2. Thank you—you’re so sweet! Tomatoes are so easy to grow. We have 3 plants in pots and with, sun and water, you get LOTS of tomatoes! And they keep on coming!

  3. This looks awesome! I can’t wait to try, as eggplant is one of my faves. Another thing to do with a ton of tomatoes is to slow roast in the oven. I love tomato season! YUM

  4. You can never have too many tomatoes! I’ve actually been using them in desserts a lot this summer, since the little ones we grow in our garden are so incredibly sweet. Can’t go wrong with a classic casserole though. 🙂

    • I would love to see a recipe where you can use cherry tomatoes in a dessert! That would be really interesting. And the tomatoes keep coming!! Thanks for reading!!

  5. Interested in follow your recipes. What I have seen sounds great. Sure there is more.

  6. Aussie Vegan Princess says:

    I’ve just tried this recipe and it’s fabulous….I’m having it for lunch at work this week. Will definitely make it again. Thank you.

  7. Aussie Vegan Princess says:

    Thank you …..I kinda borrowed it from yours because I can never think of a good name. Anyway, I think all vegans are princes/princesses (or goddesses). I’m madly collecting the recipes here to try…what I like is that they’re easy to make and I have all the ingredients anyway.

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