This time of year there are more tomatoes than I know what to do with, zucchini everywhere, lovely peppers and kale. Chopping it all up and throwing it into a pot is clearly the way forward. This hearty stew, so thick it is more of a stove top casserole, highlights the best of the late summer harvest.
Summer’s Bounty Stew
The Stuff
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas
- 3 medium zucchini, chopped (about 4 cups)
- 6 cloves garlic, minced roughly
- 1 medium onion, sliced into thin petals
- 1 poblano pepper, diced fine
- 2 bunches of kale, stemmed and torn into small pieces
- 2 pounds of fresh tomatoes, chopped into pieces of varying size (a nice mix of large and rather small bits is perfect)
- 1 t dried oregano
- 1 t dried basil
- 1 t dried marjoram
- ½ t dried rosemary, rubbed together in your palm to break it up a little
- ⅓ c nutritional yeast
- 1 t sweet paprika
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
The Making
Heat a 4 qt sauce pan or cast iron dutch oven on medium-high (if using cast iron, reduce to medium-low once the pot is hot).
Lightly spray the pot with canola oil. Saute onion until it begins to brown, about 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and continue to saute another 3-5 minutes; onions will begin to caramelize. Add poblano pepper and saute for another 5 minutes. Add in zucchini, chickpeas, and tomatoes.
Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, until zucchini is tender. Add kale and all the herbs and spices then simmer until kale has softened, another 5 minutes.
Serve with some crusty bread or with quinoa.
Makes 3+ quarts of very tasty stew.
Notes:
- Yes, fresh herbs would totally rock. I just didn’t have any on hand. Next year we’ll have an herb garden going. I’d use up to a tablespoon of each herb, fresh. Parsley would be a great addition.
- This recipe reminds me a lot of the Japanese-inspired winter stew I make, which uses canned tomatoes. They would work perfectly well in this recipe, however, my main goal was to use up some of the pounds and pounds of fresh tomatoes from our garden.
- I use a mix of heirloom tomatoes, because that’s what we grow in the garden. Don’t worry if these are far too expensive to consider — just use any fresh tomatoes or go ahead and used canned, diced tomatoes.
- You could replace the sweet paprika with smoked paprika and it would be delicious. I think I sometimes go a little crazy with the smoked paprika so I skipped it this time.
- Want a spicier stew? Replace the paprika with cayenne and add a ½ teaspoon dried chili flakes – this would be fantastic too!
Nasty Flash + Ugly Counters
By the bye — check out the much better picture I used at the top of this post! Christie gave me a light tent set for my birthday so I can start taking better pictures of my food and art work. I still have a lot to learn about this kind of photography, but even the first attempt with the light tent on the picture above is so much better! For proof take a look at the best possible picture I was able to take at night in my kitchen.