Besides being incredibly nutritious, djuvec also tastes wonderful! 
You can eat it as the main course, or you can also serve it as an accompaniment to a meat dish. Either way, you’re going to love it!
Djuvec (Baked Vegetable Casserole)
Ingredients:
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 2 celery stalks
- 3 bell peppers, each a different color (you can use all the same color, but it’s more visually appealing with all the different colors. I used yellow, red, and orange peppers.)
- 2 medium-size zucchini
- 3 potatoes
- 1 can diced petite tomatoes (or you can use fresh cherry tomatoes instead like I did.
- 1/2 cup rice
- 1-2 tbsp. olive oil
- Vegeta (you can use other spices of your preference if you don’t have Vegeta.)
- water
- parsley
- black pepper
- Optional: eggplant
Note: If you make this with eggplant, soak the eggplant in salt water for about 15 minutes so it’s less bitter.
Instructions:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan with olive oil.
- Clean all your vegetables.
- Slice the carrots into thin rounds. You can peel the carrots if you like, but I prefer to eat the skins since they’re so nutritious.
- Dice the onion, and cut your peppers into strips about 4 cm. long.
- Cut the celery into small pieces (about 1 1/2 cm. long)
- Put 1 to 2 tbsp. of olive oil in a large pan or pot. (I used 2 tbsp while Vesna used just 1 tbsp. It all depends what you prefer.)
- Take all the vegetables you just sliced and cut and put them in the pan for about 10 to 15 minutes on medium well heat. If you make your djuvec with eggplant, add the eggplant with the other veggies.
- Reduce the heat to medium after 5 minutes and stir frequently.
- While the veggies are cooking in the pan, dice the potatoes into small pieces. You can peel the potatoes first if you like, but I don’t because the skins are so nutritious.
- Add the potatoes to the pan/pot after the carrots/onion/peppers/celery have cooked for 15 minutes.
- Add some water and your diced or fresh tomatoes. I added about a cup of water, but you can a little more or less. Cook for 15 minutes.
- Slice the zucchini into thin slices while the veggies are on the stove, and then add the rice and zucchini after the veggies have cooked for 15 minutes.
- Add more water as necessary, and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Add Vegeta, parsley, and pepper to taste.
- Pour the mixture into the greased 9 x 13 inch pan, adding a little water (maybe 1/2 cup to 1 cup).
Here’s what my djuvec looked like when the vegetables were cooked and ready to be baked. The potatoes were about half cooked.
- Bake on 350 degrees approximately 45 minutes or until the water evaporates.
Note: I baked my djuvec 1 1/2 hours and the water still wasn’t evaporated. Apparently I added too much water, so I just used a ladle to remove some of the juice after I took it out of the oven. I kept the juice I removed and then added it back the next day after it sat in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
We’re still enjoying the leftover djuvec, and I’ll definitely make this again. Kemal said that he would like to have more potatoes in it when I make it again, so I’ll probably make it with five potatoes next time. I also made some rosemary flat bread to go along with the djuvec, and it matches perfectly, especially when you dip it in the juices of the djuvec. Yummmmmmmm!
