Vegetable Hash

Our vegetable gardens (and those of friends) are poised to yield profuse numbers of zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, etc.  Here is a recipe that I invented last summer, in a desperate attempt to deal with an odd bounty of vegetables that had been given to us by a friend. 

I call it "Vegetable Hash", and I just finished making a batch. 

The eggplant, pepper, and tomatoes are from the store (not in season here yet)  The assortment of squash is from the farmer's market.

This is not an exact recipe.  Vegetable Hash is designed to use whatever vegetables you want to use.  For me, the eggplant and tomato and some sort of squash is a staple ... everything else is variable. 

All of the vegetables are chopped and simmered in a pot.  I start with whichever one needs the most cooking time, and I work my way down to the ones that cook quickest.  In today's batch, after adding a good splash of olive oil to the pot, the first ingredient was the green pepper

This simmered while I peeled and chopped the eggplant.

Then, the tomatoes.

I peeled and chopped all the zucchini, and stirred them to the pot.

Simmer, covered, for a few minutes ... till the veggies begin to get tender and it's bubbly and juicy.

Final ingredient, brown rice.  To keep this recipe easy and fast, I usually stir in a bit of Minute Rice brown rice straight from the box.  There's no measurement to give you for this ... just eyeball it.  The idea is for the rice to simmer and soak up most of the liquid from the vegetables.  Add some water, if you need to. 

Put the lid back on and simmer until the rice is cooked.  Season to taste. Most of the time I simply add sea salt. For a bit of a different taste, I have been known to add half an envelope (or so) of McCormick's spaghetti sauce mix.

I portion this into containers and keep it in the fridge.  It is a perfect summer side dish.  My favorite is a bowl of 'hash', topped with sliced steak or a slab of grilled salmon ... yum!!)

We have a friend who is totally vegetable-phobic ... and she eats this eagerly every time we serve it when she's here ... but she picks out the peppers.  I'm okay with that.

(sharing this with Wow Us Wednesday)