STEEMIT IRON CHEF 2018 Act 02 Round 05 ~ Mini semi-cooked-and-semi-raw vegetable lasagnas

My dish for this weeks @steemit-ironchef is inspired by my love for the mediterranean kitchen. Summertime is perfect for this because all the ingredients are growing locally, are ripe and full of flavor. My goal was to create a dish that wouldn't need all these newly discovered "typical vegan" ingredients that I never heard of before I became vegetarian or later on a vegan. I refer to things like tofu, nutritional yeast, plants milk, soyghurt, Kala Namak, Agar Agar and many, many other stuff that I love now but that might be too exotic for a person who doesn't cook vegan. I assume you know what I wanted to say ...

I wanted all my ingredients (or something similar) to be available for most of my readers, things you can buy in every food store, supermarket or on every green market.

Now lets start:

Ingredients:

• a yellow and a green zucchini and an eggplant, all with about the same diameter 
• three very ripe, fleshy tomatoes 
• one onion and one glove of garlic 
• some oyster mushrooms (button mushrooms or other mushrooms ar as good, all of them add a meaty texture to the sauce)
• one bell pepper (any color is fine except the green, I find the green ones too bitter for this)
• a cup of brown lentils (mine are Le Puy Lentils I bought in the Zero Waste Store and that are grown around this region too)
• two cups of pureed tomatoes
• some fresh (parsley, basil, dill) and dried (oregano, rosmary and thyme) herbs
• some spices (salt, pepper, a dash of pepperoni)

Preparation:

First I washed the lentils and started to cook them in salt water until soft but still al dente ( that last around 40minutes depending on the sort of lentils you use)

Then I made a simple sofrito by frying the finely chopped onions and the garlic in some vegetable oil on low heat until soft and vitreous.

I set them aside and peeled the bell pepper and the tomatoes to make them easier to digest and to give the vegetable ragout an elegant touch. I peeled the tomatoes by cutting the skin and covering them with boiling-hot water for a few minutes. The skin is easy to remove then.

I chopped the mushrooms and fried them for a few minutes in a pan with vegetable oil. Then I added the peeled and in small cubes chopped bell peppers and fried for another ten minutes.

I chopped the tomates into pieces. I didn't remove the seeds because they contain the most amount of lycopin which is an healthy carotinoid and the most amount of natural glutamat that brings a rich umami flavor to the dish.

I added the fresh chopped parsley, dried oregano, thyme and rosmary, a good amount of salt and fresh ground pepper and some pepperoni seeds. I mixed it with the pureed tomatoes and let it cook for a few minutes.

When the lentils where soft I stirred them into the ragout as well as the sofrito and let it simmer on very low heat until I prepared the eggplant and the zucchini.

Eggplant has to be fried or cooked to be delicious. I wanted to reduce the amount of oil because the hubby is on a low carb, low sugar and low fat diet. I kind of mixed these ways of preparation. I heated a small amount of water and a dash of vegetable oil in a large pan and "fried" thin slices of the eggplant in it. That way they turned nice and soft without sponging too much oil.

I didn't cook the zucchini but only cut them in slices.

To serve the dish I stack up the zucchini and eggplant slices alternating with the vegetable ragout. Pretty easy but attractive. Done!

I would love to hear what you think about my dish, especially from you who don't cook plantbased on a regular base. Is this something that looks and sounds appealing to you or do you feel that there is something missing. Thank you again @progressivechef for this weeks theme. That was carried out easily. I cook vegan everyday anyway ... 😉. Everyone who would like to choin this week's challenge or in general can read the original post with all the rules here: STEEMIT IRON CHEF 2018 Act 02 Round 05 : Contest now OPEN!!!. I would love to see your entries!

Have a beautiful rest of the week and a relaxing summer weekend! ☀️