Summer Au Gratin

Summer Au Gratin
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T lime juice
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t ground black pepper
1 can coconut milk
1 cup non-dairy milk
6 cups eggplant and summer squash, thinly sliced
1/2-1 cup cooked rice
1- 1 1/2 cups cooked lentils
3-5 cups fresh rainbow chard, chopped

Topping:
1 cup cornmeal
1 T olive oil
1/2 t dried oregano
1/4 t ground cumin
1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine garlic, lime juice, salt, pepper, and milks in a liquid measuring cup.
Layer the squash/eggplant, overlapping, across the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
Top this layer with rice, lentils, and chard.
Pour 1/3 of the milk mixture over top.
Repeat until all ingredients are used up or the pan is full, reserving enough milk and veg for the final top layer.
Top with a thin layer of squash/eggplant. 
Pour remaining milk mixture over top of the whole thing.
In a small bowl combine all ingredients for the topping and sprinkle over the top layer.
Bake 45 minutes, or until veg are tender when pierced with a fork.
Let sit for 5 minutes once removed from the oven before serving.

This is basically a more seasonal, more local re-do of one of our most favorite recipes-- Caribbean Sweet Potato Au Gratin.  We used my uncle's lentils instead of black beans.  Homegrown chard instead of spinach (since all our spring spinach is long gone and our fall spinach is not ready).  Eggplant (from the farmer's market) and various homegrown summer squash instead of potatoes (so we can save our potatoes for winter and use up our abundance of summer squash).  We also swapped out thyme in favor of homegrown oregano.

And it was SO darn tasty.  Yuuuuuummmmmmy, yuuuummmmy, yum!