Late Summer Harvest

The eggplants were tired at 29 South, so Shannon pulled them.  Before our amazing gardener did the dirty work I managed to snag a few fruits.  Eggplants and peppers are amazing vegetables.  Through the maddening heat of late summer they push through a bounty that is unbelievable given the circumstances.  They are relatively small plants, with smallish leaves and it is surprising how they produce so much fruit, and they seem to thrive in the dead heat of summer.   

I think we could learn something from late summer vegetable plants.  They have extraordinary stamina during a time of year when everything else seems to be dragging.  And they do so with panache.  I mean look at these colors.

It is hard to go wrong with roasted vegetables.  Olive oil. Salt. Pepper. 

A holy trinity.  

 

I needed a quick fix for dinner the other night and looked to the veggie bowl.   Eggplant from our garden and summer squash, red and green peppers from the farmer's market.   There was some Israeli cous cous in the pantry.  Feta in the fridge.

It is hard to go wrong with roasted vegetables.  Olive oil. Salt. Pepper. A holy trinity.  

 

The end product was so good I forgot to photograph it until it was almost finished three days later.  This is one of those dishes that just gets better as leftovers.

The recipe is so easy and you can use it for any veg.  Here...try it this weekend.  It will become a regular go to in a pinch.  This is my recipe, one I concocted using broad strokes of improvisation...so excuse the vagueness.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of seasonal vegetables chopped in 1/2 inch cubes.
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups of cous cous of any kind
• a big hunk of feta cheese, crumbled (Buy feta in a block and crumble it yourself...not as dry as pre-crumbled cheese and no low fat cheese...unless you must.  The real deal adds a creaminess to the dish.)

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Chop your veg and put it in a bowl.  Toss it with olive oil, salt and pepper
3. Spread veg out on a cookie sheet and put in oven.  Roast for 30 minutes.
4. While veg is cooking, make the cous cous according to the package directions.
5. When cous cous is done put it in a large bowl and add veg to cous cous.
6. Add feta to bowl and toss and drizzle with olive oil.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.

*As a side note:  I like to add fresh basil, or mint, lemon or chopped kalamata olives to this dish depending on the veg flavors.