Ingredients:

• 1 medium chopped onion
• At least 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Olive oil
• Zucchini, at least one fat zucchini
• Eggplant, at least one very fat eggplant
• Variety of peppers chopped OR chopped green peppers only
• Bay leaves, 2 or more for a big pot
• 1 to 2 T. oregano
• 2 or 3 large-sized cans of diced tomatoes

Optional:

• May add rice or chopped potatoes to thicken and stretch for several more meals

• May turn into a “meat” dish by adding sautéed, browned, lean ground beef drained of any fat. 

Directions:

1. Put enough oil into pot to cover the bottom; heat oil.
2. Add minced garlic; brown lightly, while stirring.
3. Add chopped onion; brown lightly, while stirring.
4. Chop zucchini, eggplant, and peppers into bite size pieces.
5. Add eggplant, peppers, and zucchini into the pot; empty diced tomato cans into the pot.
6. Add bay leaves and oregano.
7. Cover pot with lid and cook slowly on stove top for about an hour.  During this hour, zucchini, eggplant, and peppers will shrink a bit; but that’s to be expected.  This hour’s shrinkage will give you more room in which to stir if the ingredients otherwise rise to the top edge of the pot (as mine did when I first filled the pot).  Refrigerate for no less than 24-hours to improve the taste.  What you ate here was prepared Monday and has been in the refrigerator since.

This dish can be served chilled, very much like a gazpacho, or hot -- particularly with optional meat (or rice or potatoes).  Today was the first time I served it chilled, and I liked it.  Usually I made this in the Winter and served it hot as a main dish with meat and then extended it later in the week with rice or potatoes   Also good hot without meat or starches but served with crackers, like a soup.  Note:  no salt or pepper was used.  (I counted on the canned tomatoes to bring in enough salt; and the pepper vegetables, for the “pepper.”)