Eggplant Provencale

There's nothing better than free food, right? I think I've rhapsodized about this before. Recently, I was the lucky beneficiary of not one, but two people's garden overproduction, and on the same day, no less!

Bag-o-plenty #1 came from my hubby's parents, who had a bumper crop of tomatoes, purple eggplant, zucchini, and green peppers. Since I was too busy lazy to till my own garden this year, I've gotten downright giddy when gifted with others' homegrown produce. I love being asked, Do you want some of our extra veggies? Will you use them? Um, is the Pope Catholic?

Bag-o-plenty #2 came from my good friend, Allison. She had a monster bag of white eggplant and cherry tomatoes for me. She didn't ask if I'd want them. She knows me pretty well :)

So, I now had an unexpected (but greatly appreciated) bounty of tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and peppers on hand. But what to do with them? I started flipping through my cookbooks, looking for inspiration. Then I remembered a recipe I had made a couple of years ago from Vegetarian Times for Eggplant Provencale. I was pretty sure it had all of these ingredients in it. Turns out - I was right!

Eggplant, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, and garlic are sauteed together, then tossed with chopped green olives, capers, parsley, and spices. 

A light coating of Italian breadcrumbs, nooch, and melted Earth Balance tops it off before baking.

I rounded out the meal with some steamed broccoli and brown rice rotini tossed with some eggplant pasta sauce. Yum!

The eggplant was silky, soft, and delicious, and the combination of tomatoes and breadcrumbs reminded me of Eggplant Parmesan. It was fabulous!