ratatouille #2

I threw a bunch of vegetables together and realized it was essentially a ratatouille recipe.  In the past, I've found this to be a boring dish, but I liked this one.  And I liked how the eggplant tasted.  In several of my past attempts at cooking eggplant, it was bitter.  I think slow cooking in tomato sauce works well.

Ingredients:

1 eggplant

1 onion or a couple of leeks

1 bunch collard greens

1/4 cup pesto (or lots of chopped basil, chopped garlic, 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast and 1 oz ground walnuts)

2 garlic cloves (or however many you want, I kind of like this to be garlicy)

2 16-oz cans tomatoes (or 1 28 oz, whatever the big ones are at the store)

a bunch of mushrooms (I must have had a pound)

zucchini would be good too, I didn't have any

herbs:  I had some tarragon and chives from my garden.  dried italian seasoning would work fine or just fresh basil (above) if you have some.

Chop the onion, put it in a big pot, add the tomatoes and start cooking.  Peel the eggplant, chop into bite-size pieces, add to pot.  Wash and chop the collard greens, add to the pot.  Chop the garlic and add.  Wash and chop the mushrooms and add.  Add the pesto or ingredients therein  (you can grind the walnuts in a coffee grinder, or don't bother with them, they just happened to be in my pesto).   chop the zucchini and add.  Let it cook until the eggplant is tender.  40 minutes after you add it?

I think the nutritional yeast was a key ingredient, neutralizing the metallic taste of tomatoes when you don't use salt.