Savory Vegetable Crumble with Eggplant, Zucchini, Tomatoes and Mushrooms

I’ve found a new favorite weeknight meal that allows me to pack in as many different vegetables as I want, and, after the initial chopping, pretty much cooks itself. I’ve been needing for something like this to come along, since we’ve been having some very busy times around here. Going through house renovations, book edits and a third grader’s school homework all at the same time is no piece if cake, while food easily becomes that much needed escape from daily stress. There have been too many no-food-all-day-then-pizza-at-night days for me, and I knew it had to stop. It goes without saying, I’m very excited to share this lifesaver of a recipe with you today! I’ve been making lots of sweet skillet crumbles this summer, with any and all fruit I’d come across, from cherries and strawberries, to peaches and plums. It’s kind of the perfect lazy man’s dessert – so easy to prepare (chop, mix, bake) and very delicious. It’s really no wonder I’ve gotten hooked on whipping one up almost every week.
This is where I got the curiosity to try out a savory crumble – what if the same breezy and flavorful preparation could be applied to vegetables? Well, turns out that it can, and it’s really good.

For this particular savory crumble, I used the vegetables that are most abundant right now – zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes, with an addition of mushrooms for their meatiness and substance, and complete with warming curry spice. That being said, this recipe is highly customizable – use any vegetable in season (squash soon!), and any spice mix you prefer, keeping the crumble topping the same. After about an hour of slow-baking in the oven, you will have an amazingly comforting and nourishing meal. The leftovers are really tasty, too.

Now you might be wondering what that beautiful wooden appliance gracing some of the photos is. Pleasant Hill Grain, a supplier of high-quality kitchen equipment, sent me one of their grain mills made by KoMo for grinding dry grains and beans, and I am in love! I wrote a lot about the advantages of freshly grinding your own flour in my book – it’s more affordable (whole grains are generally cheaper than flour), more nutritious, and so much more flavorful. It’s an especially great strategy for gluten-free baking, where a mix of various flours is often required.

Before this mill, I did all my grinding in my high-speed Belndtec, but the way the KoMo mill is different and better for grinding flours is through its use of stones. Stone grinding is the most ancient form of pulverizing grain, and creates the most nutritious flour, simply because the flour never gets heated up too much while milling, allowing it to retain all the nutrition of the grains. KoMo also uses state of the art stones, made of a combination of corundum and ceramic, which basically never get worn down, and can produce very fine to coarse flour, based on your setting. I can genuinely say that fresh, stone-ground flour is absolutely the best, most flavorful flour you’ll ever cook with. Lastly, can we talk about the minimal design of this mill – is it not the most beautiful appliance you’ve ever seen? It’s designed in Germany and made in the Austrian Alps, and there’s not a single detail that doesn’t have function. The housing is made of Beechwood, and those meticulously crafted finger joints at the corners make me swoon. Once my kitchen is renovated, this guy will be on display, front and center.
The most exciting news, though, is that we will be giving away one KoMo mill next week, so a hot tip – stick around for that :)