Vegetable Crumble

Last night, I made MattBites' Vegetable Crumble. And I completely forgot about taking pictures, so here's his.

This is actually the second time I've made this dish in as many weeks. The first time I made it, I stuck pretty close to his recipe, using yellow summer squash, zucchini, tomatoes, onion, 2 cloves of garlic, and these really thin eggplants we got from our CSA share. I used regular butter and fresh rosemary (we didn't have any fresh thyme) in the crumble topping. It was very tasty. My meat-loving husband even enjoyed it (and ate the leftovers for lunch the next day!). It's also quick and easy to assemble, and you can play Wii Jeopardy while you're waiting the hour for it to bake... :)

So, last night, with my vegetable drawer still overflowing, and it being Medditerranean week and all, I thought this was a great go-to recipe. This time, I used zucchini, tomatoes, a yellow pepper, an onion, some little cauliflower stems we had, 2 patty pan squash, and, I just realized, I forgot the garlic (heresy, I know). I tried making the crumble this time with vegan butter (Earth's Balance) and since our fresh herbs had mostly died on the counter and for some reason I apparently don't even have dried thyme, I added some dried "Italian Herbs" to my crumble mix. It came out just as tasty. So, one to file away - you can easily swap out the butter and make this recipe vegan. Good to know.

I liked this, too, because it packs so many veggies into one satisfying dish, and is so forgiving. I think it could work well with fall/winter squash and root vegetables, too. Lots of variations to try!

I actually served this alone, mostly because I was too tired and lazy to put any more effort into dinner (though my husband did make himself a sausage or two to eat along with it), and it was pretty filling by itself. But you could always put it over pasta or eat it with some good bread. There are lots of good veggie juices left in the pan after cooking, so bread might be good to sop those up. You could also serve it along side any protein.

Here's Matt's original recipe:

Vegetable Crumble
5 cups mixed vegetables (zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant), chopped rough, ½ inch
3 roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of pepper
butter for greasing pan

Crumble Topping:
½ cup all purpose flour
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into ½ cubes
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
1 teaspoon cold water

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix vegetables, tomatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Place in a greased 9 by 9 inch baking dish or in individual gratin dishes.

In a bowl, mix the flour, butter, salt, pepper, and thyme and rub the mixture together with your hands. It should be crumbly and sandy, not overly mixed. Sprinkle the water over the mixture and blend with a fork.

Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the vegetables and cook for 1 hour or until the vegetables are soft and the crumble topping is golden brown. Garnish with fresh thyme and serve hot.