Ok so perhaps my photo taking skills don’t show this to be an appetizing dish, but as for someone who dislikes eggplant it was absolutely delicious. Our garden afforded us practically every veggie that was used in this dish. My mom discovered a HUGE purple eggplant and tomatoes have practically overtaken our entire garden.  As a result I was asked to make use of both and I feel I delivered. I usually try and make recipes that are “semi-homemade” so it’s easy for every one but in this case the lesson learned here is spending zero dollars to make a filling and home cooked meal from scratch. Just a forewarning it does take a bit of time so if you’re looking for something quick and easy I would opt out of this recipe Vegan substitutions are written in pink

- 1 medium size eggplant
- 4-5 cups fresh tomatoes pitted
- 1 1/2 cup green bell peppers cut into strips
- 1 1/2 cup white onion cut into strips
- 1/4 chopped basil
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds (optional)
- 1 tbsp dried oregano (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 1/3 cup milk (plain soymilk)
- 2 cups shredded cheese (soy cheese) (optional)

Heat a large pot on medium-high heat. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil and allow to heat up.  Add fennel seeds and minced garlic and cook for about a minute. You don’t want to turn the garlic brown.  Add tomatoes.  Allow them to heat through for about 5 minutes. Using a spatula start smashing tomatoes in the pot until you’ve broken up most of them.  You don’t want to season them just yet because there may still be a lot of water in them even if you have pitted them.  Don’t be too concerned with how watery it is as it’ll evaporate as it cooks.  Let that cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (pretty much the standard).  Cut even (or as even as you can get) slices of the eggplant about 1/4-1/2 inch thick depending on how large your eggplant is. Just remember thicker slices will take longer to cook than thinner slices.  Arrange all slices on a cookie sheet or pizza pan. Drizzle 2 tbsp of olive oil onto both sides and sprinkle salt and pepper. Place in the oven for about 5 minutes on each side just to start the cooking process.

Back to the sauce pot, add the oregano, peppers, and onions as they’ll cook in the sauce — for about 5 minutes.  Add milk and stir in and allow to cook for an additional 5 minutes. Generously add some salt and pepper. Top off with basil.

Remove your eggplant slices from the oven.  Spray a casserole or oven safe dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Once the sauce is done cooking, ladle a little bit onto the bottom and sides of the dish.  Layer a few slices of the eggplant at the bottom of the dish. Pour sauce over the first layer. Sprinkle cheese on top if desired. Repeat the process until you run out of eggplant.  Top it off with the remainder of the sauce and generously add cheese.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.  If you want a nice crusty top on the final minute broil on low.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes before serving.

Like I said I dislike eggplant and I thought this was delicious! This easily served 6 people