Armenian Vegetable Casserole
In honor and celebration of fellow Wanderblogger, Beth (Pampers and Pakhlava), and her family’s over-the-moon adoption journey to bring home their Armenian-born daughter, I decided to make a favorite family recipe for dinner last night. The recipe was passed on to me more than 25 years ago. While I’m unsure of its origins, I do know it’s a popular dish on several recipe websites.
For Beth, Big Papa and Baby Bird, here’s the recipe:
Armenian Vegetable Casserole (Tourlu)
- 1 small (about 1 lb.) unpeeled eggplant
- 2 large onions
- 3 medium-sized carrots
- 2 large stalks celery
- 1 large red or green bell pepper
- 1 or 2 large potatoes
- 1/2 pound fresh green beans
- 1 can (1 lb.) pear-shaped tomatoes
- 1/2 cup each olive oil and catsup
- about 2 teaspoons salt
- 1-1/2 teaspoons each sugar and dry basil
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 3 or 4 small zucchini (Add the last 20 – 30 minutes)
- chopped parsley for garnish
Combine ingredients, cover dish and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 – 1/2 to 2 hours until vegetables are tender. Baste vegetables with juices every 30 minutes.
Makes 12 – 15 servings. Mmm . . .
Do you have a favorite recipe from your travels, Wanderboomers? Share it with us here.
10 comments
Wow! We three are deeply touched by your post! This dish looks delicious, sounds delicious. And, coming from a fellow Wanderblogger, former upstate NYer and adoptive Mama…well, what’s not to like! We’ll be trying this recipe out at home (albeit with a blender version for Baby Bird).
You will love this recipe, Beth – I promise! Celebrating YOU and your beautiful family . . .
Welcome to the new daughter, and thanks for the recipe, it looks yumy.
Thanks for adding your warm welcome to Beth’s new baby girl, Brenda! Let me know how you like the recipe ~
Looks great, I´ve bookmarked this for my first harvest of aubergines this year.
Thanks.
You’ll be glad you did, Rachel. Thanks for stopping by ~
One of my favorite experiences in Egypt was that of being taken to a Kosheri restaurant in Cairo. Three floors packed with smiling families, all being served the one thing on the menu: Kosheri.
Clearly a food of locals, this popular Egyptian dish is inexpensive and highly variable. Consisting mostly of a mix of grains and starches like rice, lentils, chickpeas and macaroni, you top the body off with tomato sauce and garnish to taste with with options like hot spices, garlic oil, fried onions and vinegar. When you eat it you can feel you are sharing a piece of that person’s individuality as they teach you, through their own style of Kosheri, what they were taught at home and thus find sustaining, hearty, welcoming and warm.
It can be made in so many variations – my family came home and experimented, settling on a version we like that uses simple tomato sauce and plain spaghetti, lentils and garbonzo beans.
A more “formal” recipe is linked here: http://www.egyptianrecipes.net/koshari
but the best part is that you make it your own. Have an experiment and see what collection of deliciousness you like best!
I love this, Sarah! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your story with us – and for providing a link to a more “formal” recipe should anyone feel they need one. You remind me of the exceptionally warm hospitality I received from the Egyptian families of my students when I was teaching in Cairo.
Looks interesting! thank you
One of my best vacations ever was the week I spent at Mexican Home Cooking School outside of Tlaxcala, Mexico. Our teachers Estela Silva and her husband Jon Jarvis taught us her family recipes. The mole’ we made (and Ive since made at home) was better than anything I had in Puebla. Rather than me passing on her recipes, check out the ones on the site. Mexicanhomecooking.com
I’ve never attended a cooking school in my travels, Eva, but I think I’d really enjoy the experience. Thanks for the website tip!