Vegan Stuffed Vegetables

I haven't been posting for a long while now...

I have to say that I have been very busy lately,...

Moving out from my apartment, going in the caraibeans for a week vacations, and finally moving to France for the summer

...

I am getting a bunch of delicious vegan recipes from here, that I will start posting too .

Tonight dish :

STUFFED VEGETABLES

We are going to use only 5 types of vegetables, very easy to find... nothing too fancy.

South of France - Provencal cuisine is all about Simple, healthy, in season products ...

This is a recipe for 16 stuffed vegetables, or 4 people.

Preparation : 30-40 minutes

Cooking in oven : 1 hour

Vegetables to be stuffed:

4 big tomatoes

4 medium eggplants

4 bell peppers ( color of your choice )

4 zucchini

The stuffing:

1 1/2 cup of long grain rice

1/4 + 1/2 cup of olive oil

1 large onion ( chopped )

1/2 cup of parsley ( chopped )

2 carrots ( grated )

2 medium size zucchini ( grated )

1 small eggplant ( grated )

salt

pepper

breadcrumbs

Preparing the vegetables:

Wash the vegetables.

Cut the caps off the tomatoes and peppers.

Cut both ends of the eggplants and zucchinis.

lay the eggplants and zucchini on their more stable side, so they dont roll all over, and cut open the top, carefully leaving an inch on each end of uncut vegetable.

( see picture )

With a spoon, spoon out th pulp and seeds of the peppers, eggplants and zucchini.

Discard all or save the zucchini and eggplant pulp to make a ratatouille type sauce-dish later on.

Scoop out the tomatoes and save the pulp, we will need it for the stuffing.

Lightly salt the inside of the vegetables.

Save the caps off all the veggies, we will use them to cover them once they are stuffed.

Preparing the stuffing:

In a large pan, warm up 1/4 a cup of olive oil, and the onion, chopped.

When the onion becomes transparent, almost golden, add the chopped parsley.

Keep stirring for 3 minutes.

Add the grated vegetables all at once.

Cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes or until well softened.

Add the tomato pulp ( if possible, crush it well ) and cook for another 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let it cool for about 15 minutes.

Then add the rice, salt and pepper and mix it well.

Assembling everything:

With a spoon fill in the vegetables with the stuffing , loosely ( because the rice will double or triple in volume ).

Prepare a mix with 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/2 cup of water , and pour it over the veggies.

Close back each vegetable with its cap, and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

Cook for about an hour at 450 Fahrenheit or 220 Celsius.

Check that the veggies do not burn if placed too close to the top of the oven.

If they brown too fast, cover them with aluminium foil.

It is simply delicious, not heavy at all.

Without the breadcrumb its a gluten free dish as well as vegan.

Bon Appetit From South of France !!!