Vegetables for the Freezer

My day-trip last Saturday brought me back to the Lavender Farm in Ojai (www.newoakranch.com). They have lavender products (salt, oil, crèmes) and you can cut and pick your own lavender. The season is from mid June – End of July.

On the way home I passed by the Underwood Family Farm (recommended by Kieu,

www.underwoodfamilyfarms.com). I made a stop to check out the vegetables.

I got zucchinis, eggplants, peppers (yellow, green and black) and decided to create a kind of a ratatouille, filling up my tupperware for the freezer.

I’m planning to use the veggie-mix for scrambled eggs, soups, mixing it with chicken or fish, cold veggie salad. I think I have several choices and can still make a real ratatouille adding some tomatoes.

Ratatouille (Wikipedia)

The word ratatouille comes from Occitan ratatolha and the recipe comes from Occitan cuisine. The French touiller means to toss food. Ratatouille originated in the area around present day Occitan Provença (French: Provence) and Niça (French: Nice); the Catalan "samfaina" and the Majorcan "tombet" are versions of the same dish.

I washed and cut vegetables in bite-sized cubes. Heated olive oil in a pain and added first onions and peppers. Sprinkled some “Herbs de Provence”, salt, pepper-flakes, some lavender flowers and pepper into the mix, continued to mix and brown the vegetables for about 5minutes.

Added zucchini when onions and peppers were soften.  And last but not least: added eggplant cubes to the mix. Stir well, add a small cup of water and cook for another couple minutes until all vegetables are soft. Taste if the vegetables have enough salt.

Mix can be eaten hot, warm or cold.

Vegetables can be exchanged or replaced with other vegetables: squash, other colored peppers, garlic and tomatoes.