A simple baked (or grilled!) side vegetable starring fresh summer produce and simple, budget-friendly ingredients.
If you need more vegetable ideas, check out our salads and side dishes!
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Where I live, summertime has the best food. Gardens crank out piles of fresh produce, and you can guarantee that your neighbor overplanted zucchini and will leave a bag of it on your porch.
This recipe was born out of desperation. Our CSA had filled our kitchen with vegetables, and while everyone in our family tries to eat at least one big salad every day, summer got the better of us. I needed a recipe that took care of a bunch of produce at once, was budget-friendly, and was simple to make.
Get the recipe below (I won’t make you scroll through paragraphs of backstory you don’t care about). But check below it for nutrition information, tips, and ways this recipe helps us save money and eat healthy!
If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and tag a photo #cheapskatecook and@cheapskatecook on Instagram.
(Check out 5 Ways to Save on Quality Fruits & Vegetables!)
Baked Summer Vegetable Medley
This recipe was originally based on a Baked Ratatouille from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. I’m cooking through his 1,000 recipes as a personal and professional challenge. However, I didn’t have all of or even the right kind of ingredients. I also don’t line up my veggies like you’re supposed to.
So instead we have this Baked Summer Vegetable Medley, and it’s amazing. (Although, it proved incredibly difficult to photograph.)
Tip: I bake mine in a glass baking dish with a lid, because it makes clean up (and reheating leftovers) a snap!
Simple Baked Summer Vegetable Medley
A simple baked (or grilled!) side vegetable starring fresh summer produce and simple, budget-friendly ingredients.
Adapted from How to Cook Everything.
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 bell peppers, (red or yellow preferred)
- 1 eggplant
- 2 zucchini or summer squash
- 1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes, canned, (or 2 tomatoes)
- 1 tsp dried herb, (oregano, rosemary, or thyme)
- 3/4 tsp salt, or to taste
- 1/4 tsp pepper, or to taste
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Optional Step: Slice the eggplant into coins, discard the ends, and place the coins in a colander or on a clean towel. Sprinkle both sides with salt and let them sweat for 30 minutes. This step draws out extra moisture and cuts the bitterness in larger eggplants.
- Slice the onion, then peel and mince the garlic. Core, deseed, and thinly slice the bell peppers. Slice the zucchini into coins.
- Pile all of the vegetables into an 8x8-inch baking dish, tossing them with the salt and pepper and distributing the onion and garlic evenly.
- Pour the crushed tomatoes over top of everything. Drizzle evenly with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs.
- Bake for about 1 hour, until vegetables are tender.
- This tastes even better the next day, so feel free to prepare it ahead of time!
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Nutrition Information
Yield 6 Serving Size 1 cupAmount Per Serving Calories 176Total Fat 10gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 0mgSodium 409mgCarbohydrates 22gFiber 6gSugar 10gProtein 4g
Please note: The actual calories and nutrition of this dish will change depending on what ingredients you use. Nutrition information is not always accurate.
This Baked Summer Vegetable Medley Is:
Simple
Delicious
Real food
No weird ingredients
Un-fussy
Works on the grill or in the oven!
Budget-friendly (especially if you use these tips)
Egg-free
Great for company
Makes great leftovers
What to do with Leftovers
Unless your kids are relentlessly picky about cooked vegetables like mine (“Is this a whole slice of onion?!?!”), you won’t have many leftovers.
But here are some ideas so it doesn’t go to waste!
- As a side dish with chicken or steak
- Over pasta
- on pizza
- chopped up in soup
- chopped up in homemade marinara
- Top leftovers with cheese and broil it for a few minutes for a comfort-food twist!
Tip: I bake mine in a glass baking dish with a lid, because it makes clean up (and reheating leftovers) a snap!
How this Baked Vegetable Medley Helps Us Save Money & Eat Healthy
- Uses all those summer vegetables dying slowly in the crisper drawer
- Makes a simple vegetable side that isn’t salad
- Leftovers are easy to use
- All real food ingredients – none of it pricey
- Allergy-friendly (gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, paleo)
- Adjust it to whatever vegetables you have on hand
Kid-Friendly Tips
If your kids know how to use a knife (which I think after a certain age, they should!), this is a very simple recipe – simply chop and pour.
Kids are more likely to try food that they helped prepare, so if you’re worried about them not liking cooked vegetables, this step may help!
Grill It!
Why heat up the whole house in the summertime? If you have a grill basket like this, you can totally make these vegetables on the grill.
Step-By-Step Photos:
Optional Step: Slice the eggplant into coins, discard the ends, and place the coins in a colander or on a clean towel. Sprinkle both sides with salt and let them sweat for 30 minutes. This step draws out extra moisture and cuts the bitterness in larger eggplants.
Slice the onion, then peel and mince the garlic. Core, deseed, and thinly slice the bell peppers. Slice the zucchini into coins.
Pile all of the vegetables into an 8×8-inch baking dish, tossing them with the salt and pepper and distributing the onion and garlic evenly.
Pour the crushed tomatoes over top of everything. Drizzle evenly with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs.
Bake for about 1 hour, until vegetables are tender.
This tastes even better the next day, so feel free to prepare it ahead of time!
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