Vegetable Stew Provencal

February 25, 2015

The most significant change that I can identify in my daily diet is how much I enjoy purely vegetarian dishes. Here's one that's pretty easy, requires little time and is generally delicious. It's one of those types of dishes that you can just whip up. It satisfies a hunger and could conceivably be eaten once, twice or more than that in a month.  It's terribly low in calories so it's one of those dishes you can eat if you plan on eating out for lunch, want dessert or an excuse to enjoy delicious, glorious bread. I embellished this dish with a little feta cheese.

Vegetable Stew Provencal

GTLF: Vegetable p 29

Serves 4, working time 30 min., 50 min. total time 

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 C pearl onions, peeled, or frozen pearl onions, thawed

8 cloves garlic, peeled

1 C cut fennel bulb (1 in. chunks)

 2 C diced eggplant ( 1 in. pieces)

2 zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1 in. thick slices

14 1/2 z can no slat added stewed tomatoes, chopped with their juices

1/4 C chopped fresh basil

1 tsp dried tarragon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

15 oz can white kidney beans (cannellini), rinsed and drained

1. In a nonstick Dutch oven or large saucepan, heat the oil until hot but not smoking over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are lightly golden, about 3 min. Stir in the fennel and cook until the fennel is lightly golden, about 3 min. Add the eggplant and cook, stirring frequently, until the eggplant is lightly browned, about 5 min.

2. Add the zucchini, stirring to coat. Stir in the tomatoes and their juices, the basil, tarragon, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until the vegetables are tender and the mixture is slightly thickened , about 20 minutes.

3. Stir in the beans, and cook, uncovered, until the beans are just warmed through, about 1 min. longer. Transfer the stew to a serving dish ad serve.

Nutritional Information: 4 g fat, 189 calories, 0.5 g sat. fat, 31 g carbohydrate, 9 g protein, 0 mg cholesterol, 461 mg sodium

Tips:

1. A standard size eggplant turns out to be more than 2 C. If you don't know what to do with left over eggplant, (I'm barely learning what to do with eggplant and haven't learned what to do with left overs yet. If you have ideas let me know.) then you'll want to buy a smaller size eggplant or just use a whole eggplant in the dish.

2. GTLF suggests that this dish is even better the following day so you can make it ahead of time. It suggests that you could use chick peas instead of the white beans and finally to remember that all the parts of the fennel are edible, chop up the stocks and use as you would celery.  The feathery fronds can be used in salads.