Caponata chickpea traybake

 The third recipe I picked out, again a veggie one, is this one as it seemed like a nice variation on what I've been doing for the last few years - namely roasting some vegetables to go with foil baked salmon or crispy tofu. I skipped the celery sticks, because I don't like them, even if Lundulph is OK with these things when they are cooked. Instead I added peppers and mushrooms

Ingredients

2 red onions

4 garlic cloves

3 aubergines

2 bell peppers 

500 g button mushrooms

500 g cherry tomatoes

2 x 400 g tins of chickpeas

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp capers

50 g raisins

50 ml cider vinegar

a handful fresh mint leaves

25 g toasted almond flakes

4 wholemeal pittas

salt and pepper

Method

1. Peel, wash and cut the onions into wedges. Peel the garlic.
   
2. Trim, wash and dice the aubergine into 2 cm chunks.
3. Trim, wash and cut the bell peppers into chunks. 
4. Peel the button mushrooms and save the stalks for another use. Cut the mushrooms into chunks, if too large.
   
5. Wash the tomatoes and drain the chickpeas.
6. Preheat the oven to 220 ℃/200 ℃ fan.
7. Put the onions, aubergines, bell peppers, tomatoes in a large baking tray and press in the garlic.
8. Drizzle over the oil and season, then stir to get the vegetables coated. Spread evenly in the baking tray and roast in the oven for 30 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and add the chickpeas, capers and raisins and carefully stir through to mix. Turn down the oven to 200 ℃/180 ℃ fan and return the baking tray to the oven for 10 - 15 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven and put the pittas in to warm up in the residual heat.
11. Sprinkle the vinegar and stir carefully not to break the vegetables. Leave to rest for 10 minutes.
12. Wash and slice the mint leaves finely and toast the almond flakes in a dry frying pan.
13. Sprinkle the mint and almonds over the vegetables and serve up.

I had serious reservations about the raisins. When I've added sweet dried fruit to a savoury dish, it has always been a bad idea, but this was just 50 g for loads of vegetables, so I thought it wouldn't be too bad. And a good thing too, they were barely noticeable. The mint was quite strong when we ate the dish freshly cooked, but after stiring things together and having for lunch the next day, it was very nice. I didn't even bother reheating it and it was still nice. Lundulph insists on hot food, so he reheated his lunch and liked it as well.

This is a really nice dish, and would probably also work with meat or fish as well as on its own. I'd like to increase the amount of capers, because I quite like the taste, but Lundulph doesn't, so I probably won't. I think the fresh mint can be replaced with basil or tarragon or other fresh herbs and the almonds can also be replaced with other nuts or seeds. 

The original recipe was for 4 portions, but as I boosted it with extra vegetables, it resulted in at least 6 portions.