Using up veggies: Vegetable Tagine

Heeeeey.  So although most of my tomatoes died, the garden isn't done producing yet!

I finally found a recipe with squash involved that doesn't taste overly squashy.  I think when I planted the squash, it was cold and wintery outside, so anything that came with the summer sounded great.  Unfortunately, I forgot that I don't really like the taste of summer squash more than once a summer.

I had never tried a tagine before, so I was a little nervous when the recipe called for cinnamon and raisins.  I was even more nervous about Joe trying it, since he's adamant about not mixing sweet and savory food.  (No barbecue sauce!  No sweet and sour sauce!  And absolutely NO ketchup!)  However, he's been eating this for the past few days, even though we have several other kinds of leftovers he could have instead.  Granted, he does pick out the raisins, now that I alerted him to their presence.  He ate them and was fine before he knew they were in there, of course ;)

Anyway, all of the above vegetables came from the garden, with the exception of the eggplants on the right, which came from Mary Kay's garden. You can't really tell, but the purple bell peppers there are SO puny.  Like, much smaller than my fist puny. If it helps you envision it, those tomatoes on the left are cherry tomatoes.  

Voila!  The finished product in my happy, sunny new Dutch oven that I got for my birthday.  I really think this is a pretty dish with the colors of all the vegetables.

And there it is, ready to be eaten, sitting on some books.

Vegetable Tagine with Rice  (adapted from College Vegetarian Cooking by Megan and Jill Carle)

A good splash of cooking oil (I use olive)

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

6 or so cloves of garlic, peeled and pressed (the recipe called for 2, but of course the more garlic the better)

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

3 zucchini, chopped

3 yellow squash, chopped

1 green bell pepper, de-veined and chopped (replaced, in this case, with two puny purple peppers)

2 eggplants, peeled and chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 cup water

1/2 cup raisins

2 cups fresh tomatoes, chopped, or a 15 oz can

7 oz dry garbanzo beans soaked overnight and cooked for about 2 hours, or 15 oz can 

Cooked rice

-Heat oil over medium heat.  Saute onion and garlic for about 3 minutes.  

-Add carrots, zucchini, squash, bell pepper, cumin, cinnamon, crushed red pepper, salt, and water and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.  

-Stir in the eggplant, raisins, tomatoes, and garbanzo beans.  Cover and cook over medium-low heat , stirring occasionally, for about 25-30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.

-Serve over rice.