Türlü Güveç, Famous Turkish Mixed Vegetable Casserole

Sometimes the right tools make all the difference! A Güveç is a Turkish earthenware casserole in which these vegetables are baked. You don't have to have it, any oven safe casserole will do, but there is something about cooking in a clay pot that makes the food taste better. There just is.

Special Equipment:
An oven safe casserole dish, preferably made of the earth with a lead free glaze.
A colander 

Ingredients:

1 Medium Eggplant, cubed
4-5 Tomatoes, sliced into rounds
1 Bell pepper, chopped
2 Medium Summer Squash, sliced or cubed 
2 cups (Approximately) of young beans, snapped into 1-1.5inch pieces
3/4 cup green peas, shelled fresh or frozen
2 Medium onions, finely chopped
1 6oz can Organic Tomato Paste + 1 can water
1 Bunch flat leaf parsley chopped, or dry equivalent
3 tsp paprika or sweet red pepper/poivron rouge
4-5 teaspoons salt (for salting eggplant and then later to taste)
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil 
(You could also add okra, potatoes, or cannellini beans, all variations welcome! The Greek version adds garlic, too!)

Step 1: Cube the eggplant, salt the eggplant, and place it in a colander over a plate to drain for about 45min-1hr.

Step 2: Chop the onion, the pepper, the squash, the green beans and add them along with the peas to the clay pot. Rinse the salt from the eggplant, and add eggplant to the pot as well.

Step 3: Add parsley, salt, and paprika. Mix well, traditionally done with clean hands.

Step 4: Mix the can of tomato paste with 1 can of water and pour over the vegetables. If it clumps, just mix it in well with the vegetables.

Step 5: Slice the 4-5 tomatoes and arrange them over the vegetable mixture. Then drizzle 1/4 cup olive oil over the tomatoes.

Step 6: Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven until the tomatoes on top have browned slightly, about 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Serve hot or cold with bread, rice or fresh yoghurt. (And if you're heating up your oven anyway, go ahead and make some other veggies in there, too. Summertime CSA bounty! Yes, I did steal a goat cheese stuffed mini-pepper and eat it before I took this shot, LOL! So did David Chen.)

Enjoy!

Love, Terina