Kawaj (Syrian Summer Vegetable Medley)

This dish is full of flavor, color and very healthy.

Kawaj combines all the best of summer bounty: sweet, succulent eggplant, bell peppers, fresh tomato sauce, and flavorful, tender meat pieces. They’re all roasted together until soft and juicy.

To take advantage of the flavor from in-season tomatoes, you can make a sauce to coat all of the veggies, as opposed to just adding chopped tomatoes.

▢1 ½ lb ground meat .

▢¼ cup pine nuts . optional

▢½ cup chopped parsley

▢½ teaspoon salt or to taste.

▢½ teaspoon black pepper.

▢1 teaspoon cinnamon.

▢½ Tablespoon Arabic bahar.

▢3 Tbsp vegetable oil.

▢1 large onion sliced.

▢1 large green bell pepper sliced

▢2 medium potatoes peeled, sliced

▢Additional salt and pepper

▢2 cans diced tomatoes or 8 medium fresh tomatoes peeled and diced.

▢¼ cup water

In a large bowl, mix the first 7 ingredients well and shape the mixture into golf ball sized meatballs.

Heat oil in a skillet and brown the balls, brown for about 2 minutes from all sides. Work in batches if necessary.

Remove from heat and set aside.

In your crockpot arrange onion slices at the bottom. then top with alternate meatballs,potato slice, and green pepper, alternatively.

Mix diced tomatoes with salt and pepper and dumb in the crockpot.

Pour the water over and let it cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Serve with rice, bread and a nice green salad.