Every once in awhile I need to have a nice and hardy meal that is also somewhat good for me. In this case I take a number of vegetables that I grow in my backyard garden and throw them all in a cast iron skillet and make something that is good to eat and not to hard to make. It also looks pretty good. This recipe can made either on a stove top, or on a grill. You can also use a large standard or non-stick skillet if you do not have a cast iron one laying around.
Veggie Skillet Recipe
A simple but flavorful recipe using fairly common vegetables that you can either grow in your garden or find in every grocery store.
Equipment
- Cast Iron Skillet
Ingredients
- 4 cups Potato cut to bite sized peices
- 2 – 3 cups Fresh Tomato Cut into small chuncks
- 2 – 3 Small Sweet Peppers Cut into bite sized strips
- 1 Green Onion Can use a small regular onion chopped
- 1 pound Meat (I used leftover brats) Optional
- 3 Tbs Olive Oil May need more while you cook
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 Medium Jalapeno Pepper Optional
Instructions
- Wash all of your vegetables – especially if you buy them from the store
- Chop all of your ingredients to bite sized pieces.
- Start the skillet on the stove, add a small amount of olive or corn oil and bring pan up to high medium to high heat.
- When the oil starts to get hot, (corn oil may start to smoke) wipe the oil around the pan interior with a paper towel since this was more to prep the pan and is not part of the ingredients
- Add about 2 tsp of olive oil to the pan wait a few seconds and add the onions. Cook the onions until they either become fragrant or start to caramelize around the edges.
- Add the sliced potatoes to the pan. Stir well with the onions, and add more olive oil so they are lightly covered. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring regularly so the potatoes do not stick to the skillet.
- If you are using a meat protein this is where you would add it and mix it in well with the potatoes. I recommend either using meat you have precooked, or at least browned well ahead of time. Stir in well and cook for about 2 minutes
- Add the sweet and jalapeno (if you are using one) peppers, stir well and add additional olive oil if necessary to fully coat the vegetables.
- Cook for about 5 minutes until the peppers start to soften. Make sure to keep stirring regularly so everything is cooking evenly and not sticking to the skillet. Add salt and black pepper before each time you stir to mix it throughout the dish. Add more olive oil if you notice the items are sticking to the pan. I also occasionally add a tsp of butter at this stage, because… butter good.
- Add the tomatoes. You can either add the tomatoes on top, or move the veggies to side and put the tomatoes to the bottom of the pan. Either way works. Heavily stir the contents. The tomatoes need to break down and turn into a light sauce that is almost a glaze as they cook.
- Once the tomatoes start to break down, you can reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes. Make sure to stir every once in awhile to continue to break down the tomatoes and evenly coat all of the ingredients. The juices from the tomatoes will actually boil in the pan a little and then they will start to thicken up. At that point you can remove the heat since the pan will continue to cook and thicken up the sauce.
- Serve. I like cut the veggies into bite sized portions so you can eat them either with a fork, a spoon, or even chopsticks. Any leftovers do amazingly well reheated. But keep in mind their are no preservatives in this dish so it should only keep a day or two in the fridge.
