Oven-Baked Vegetables with Potatoes in a Clay Pan

Step-by-step recipe

1. At home, the best way to bake vegetables in the oven is in a clay pan with a lid. It is a very convenient dish for baking: the food cooks evenly and does not burn. You also don't need to add water for stewing, and a little vegetable oil is enough for baking. Prepare all the fresh vegetables: courgette, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, onion, carrots and tomatoes.
   
2. Peel the potatoes and cut them into thin wedges, roughly as for country-style potatoes. Before cutting, pat them dry with paper towels to remove excess moisture. Cut the peeled carrot into thin slices on the diagonal. Peel the onion too and cut it lengthwise into 6-8 pieces. Roughly chop a few garlic cloves with a knife. Put the vegetables in a deep bowl. Salt them well. Salt and spices are added only at this stage, and the baked vegetables are mostly zucchini, eggplant and pepper by volume. Add 1/2 tsp of sweet red paprika and some ground black pepper. Mix the vegetables with the spices thoroughly so they are evenly coated.
   
3. Young zucchini don't need to be peeled, and the seeds can stay. Cut them into large cubes, at least 2-2.5 cm. Pour 1 tbsp of vegetable oil into a frying pan and fry the zucchini until lightly golden and soft. They should stay half-raw. Transfer the fried cubes to a plate.
   
4. It is best to use young eggplants whose seeds haven't formed yet. Cut the eggplant into half-rounds 1.5-2 cm thick. When frying, eggplant flesh soaks up oil like a sponge. To use less of it and keep the dish lower in calories, put the eggplant in a bowl, add 1 tbsp of vegetable oil and toss. Fry the eggplant slices until nicely browned.
   
5. Cut the sweet pepper into rings across the pod and remove the seeds. Cut the hot pepper into large pieces. Fry all the peppers in a little oil until soft. You can skip frying the vegetables altogether, but then the aroma of the dish will be much weaker. Frying also makes sure everything is cooked to the same degree, and the baked vegetables turn out much tastier.
   
6. When using clay cookware, follow a few simple rules so it doesn't crack and lasts a long time. 10 mins before adding the vegetables, pour boiling water into the clay pan and then pour it out. Pour all the remaining vegetable oil into the prepared mix of potatoes, carrots, onion and spices and stir. Spread the vegetable mix in the pan and level it.
   
7. Spread the zucchini, courgette and peppers on top in an even layer. Press the vegetables down slightly. Cut a ripe tomato into wedges. There is no need to peel it or remove the seeds. You can salt the tomato, but only a little. Cover the pan with the lid and put it in a cold oven. Only then turn the heat on. Don't heat the oven above 200°C.
   
8. The vegetables bake in two stages. The first stage is heating, while the potatoes and carrots cook in the steam. That takes about 15 mins from when the liquid released by the vegetables starts to boil. Pierce a potato wedge with a toothpick to check if it's done. Including the time needed to heat the pan, the total is 35-40 mins.
   
9. Next, take off the lid and bake the vegetables in the pan for another 15-20 mins. During this time they will start to brown. Bake to the degree of doneness you like by eye. It can take a bit more or less time, and it doesn't affect whether the dish is ready. When it's done, carefully take the pan out of the oven. Be careful, it is very hot, so use oven mitts and set it on a large clay plate.
   
10. Usually the vegetables are served at the table in the same clay pan, just sprinkled with finely chopped herbs. At lunch, spoon the vegetables onto plates. By the way, you can cut the vegetables however you like. It works well if the zucchini aren't too thick and are cut into thick rounds, and the sweet and hot peppers are fried whole and baked the same way. I also recommend adding a little dried savory to the spices, which gives that Bulgarian flavor.