Eggplant and Pepper Sautee Fresh From The Garden

Dear Folks,

This is what growing your own food is all about.  Last night's dinner.  Eggplant and peppers fresh from the garden.  Dried onions, which were sundried this summer for later use.  A touch of my sundried oregano and done except for a sprinkle of my sundried parsley on top of the finished serving.

Sun Dried Onions

I made homemade sausage patties from naturally raised pork and turkey.  Did a quick marinade of the eggplant.  Sauteed up the veggies while the sausage patty, broken up cooked in another pan.  Cutting, marinading and cooking all took about 25 minutes!

Sun dried herbs and vegetables like the onion are just a logical way of preserving the bounty without electricity.

My "Casper" eggplant put out some lovely fruit and I knew I needed to cook or roast some in a sautee or similar.

Likewise the Paradicsom sweet pepper "needed" to be used in a flavor combo. 

The marinade I used is one I adapted from a "vegan eggplant bacon" recipe and it is a great one to keep on hand.  I make enough to have some marinade in the refrigerator for just this kind of "fast food."

Dan Reynolds "Fast Food For Cows"

"Fast Food" takes on new meaning when you walk out into the garden, harvest something fresh, stop at the pantry to grab a couple of jars of your own dried herbs, do a little cutting, a quick marinade, some cooking and serve up a delicious meal in 25 minutes.

Eggplant, Pepper & Onion Sautee

Marinade (see recipe below)
Eggplant (twice as much eggplant as peppers)
Sweet Peppers
1 tablespoon of dried onion - or more to your liking
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
Sprinkle of dried parsley for garnish

Place marinade in bowl.  Quickly chop eggplant and put in marinade while you chop peppers and heat up the frying pan. (Eggplant starts to brown as soon as you cut it, so you need to either put it in water or the marinade to keep from turning - does not affect the taste, just the look.)

Once you have the peppers chopped, add bit of marinade to the pan, heat for 30 seconds then toss in the peppers, dried onion and oregano.  Stir for 1 minutes, then add the eggplant and about a half of cup of the marinade ( you may need more marinade if you have left over, just watch the pan to keep from burning or add water).

Stir, cover and cook on medium high heat.  This only takes about 6-9 minutes or so for the eggplant and peppers to be tender.  I like some texture and firmness to my veggies. You can cook longer if you like.

At this point you can plate up, top with some dried parsley and you have a lovely veggie dish.  If you want to add the meat protein of your choice, add to the top of the veggies and sprinkle with parsley.

Marinade Recipe
Can be doubled or tripled - stores for a long time in the refrigerator 
(makes a 1/2 cup

1/8 cup (2 tablespoons) soy
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/8 cup maple syrup
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Pinch (1/16 teaspoon) liquid Hickory Smoke


Mix all together and use or store.


See my blog post on making "bacon" out of eggplant using this marinade.


I can't wait to make this again (actually I have to wait for more of my eggplant to be a little bigger).  It was that good!  I will probably add some carrots next time and in season squash.  BTW, back in September I used the marinade to make "carrot bacon" on the grill and the flavor was awesome!  Using a mandolin or similar even cutting tool makes nice slices out of carrots or eggplant for creating the "bacon" size.

Have a best day in the garden and kitchen!



-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe in the upper side bar link, to get all my posts!

Disclaimer: Clicking on links on this blog may earn me a small commission if you purchase something. Your price does not change.