Buckwheat with eggplant

The beginning of autumn is the most wonderful time for gourmets. Fresh vegetables allow you to enjoy not only their taste, but also a variety of colors in ready-made dishes.

We start cooking with eggplants. We cut them into wide plates with a thickness of about 4 mm, put them in a bowl or saucepan, sprinkle with salt and leave for 20 minutes. During this time they should let the juice and get rid of excess bitterness.

While the eggplants are in the preparatory stage, let's take care of the rest of the vegetables. Red and very fleshy bell pepper cut in half, take out the middle. We do not peel a piece of pumpkin from the peel. Vegetables are washed, but we do not cut them into pieces, we put them on a baking sheet covered with baking paper or a silicone mat. Bake in the oven, preheated to 180 degrees, for 15 minutes.

During this time, we drain the liquid from the eggplants that have been juiced and additionally rinse them with running water to wash off excess salt. Lubricate them with vegetable oil. The easiest way to do this is to put the eggplants back in the bowl, pour a little oil on top and mix the vegetables.

Spread the eggplants on a baking sheet with the rest of the vegetables and bake for another 20 minutes. Usually this time is enough, we check the vegetables, they should be soft. We take the baking sheet out of the oven and leave the vegetables to cool down to a comfortable temperature.

While the vegetables are cooling, we are doing buckwheat. We wash the grits and remove the unpeeled grains. Put it in a saucepan, pour boiling water and cook over low heat until the water evaporates.

When the vegetables have cooled enough not to get burned when working with them, peel the peppers and pumpkin from the peppers. Cut all the vegetables into strips, about 1 cm wide.

Peel the onion and cut into small cubes. In a frying pan, heat the vegetable oil and fry the onion until soft. Add salt, sugar and garlic, passed through the press. Stir with a spatula until the sugar dissolves and caramelizes the onion. Add cooked buckwheat, chopped eggplant, pepper and pumpkin to the pan. Stir well until the ingredients are evenly combined.

Add soy sauce, a mixture of Provencal herbs, salt and ground black and hot pepper to taste. Mix everything well, cover with a lid and warm over low heat for 2-3 minutes.

We serve the dish hot, sprinkled with finely chopped parsley.

Bon appetit!