Eggplant Week- Sweet Chunky Soup or Pasta Sauce

I recently received this response from a Southern Veg reader in one of my Yahoo Groups.   Thanks Ginamarie!
By the way readers, keep those e-mails coming.   I will periodically post new ideas and information from ya'll on my blog:


Germaine- I am loving your blog and have passed your link on to so many people recently.

Here is something I do with eggplant (because, quite honestly, eggplant kinda grosses me out a bit! haha) and because I know I can get a TON of veggies into my two fellas, with this recipe. It has become one of our favorite meals and it can be prepared so quickly (I toss ALL of the veggies into the food processor and voila! They are ready to be sauteed in minutes):

NOTE: If/when you juice carrots, use ALL of the remaining pulp in this recipe. Otherwise, steam 5 large carrots until soft, puree and then add into this recipe:

SWEET CHUNKY SOUP or PASTA SAUCE
1. FINELY chop 1 large sweet onion and 4 cloves of garlic and saute'. in olive oil.
2. Add FINELY chopped 1 zucchini, 1 squash, 4 or 5 handfuls of baby spinach or kelp, 1 small eggplant and carrot pulp and saute (if no pulp, then hold off on the carrots right now)
3. I add 1 large bottle of Whole Foods Organic Pasta Sauce when in a hurry but you can make     
     your own sauce and blend in if you have the time
4. Fold in the pureed carrots only if you didn't have pulp to add earlier
5. Now your sauce will be chunky and more orange than red
6. 5-10 minutes before removing from stove, add your spices (fresh basil, oregano, sea salt,
     black pepper, red pepper, etc... and cover to simmer.


Serve with any pasta that you like (we really like the gluten free rice pasta) or you can just eat it with a spoon, like soup. It's yummy and allows for a lot of creativity to add/delete veggies, according to your preference. The carrots neutralize the acid in the tomatoes and gives the sauce such a deliciously sweet and mello flavor so just make sure that the sauce is more orange than red and you will know you have added enough. Mangia!

P.S.  I completely forgot to note the Nutritional Yeast! This makes a large
amount of sauce so sometimes I add 1/2 - 1Cup of it, at the end, for a punch of
extra B vitamins and B12 and it gives it kinda of a cheesy taste. You can also
sprinkle on top in place of Parmesan cheese.