Potato, Tomato and Oregano Bake

One day I was watching Food Network. Well, not just one day, I watch Food Network a lot. I especially like Food Jammers, Ricardo and Jamie at Home. The cool thing about those shows is that they typically use locally grown, organic produce and use lots of fruits and veggies. Good stuff for vegans on a channel full of meat. I'm not trying to pimp out Food Network (except Food Jammers, that show rocks so hard it's not even funny), but I have been inspired to make some cool stuff of my own from watching cooking shows. Cool stuff like this awesome recipe that I made after watching Jamie Oliver one day. I didn't grow the potatoes in a pot on my patio like he did, but I guess if I said that I did, everyone on the internets might believe me. Except then you get to know me and realize that I have a very hard time even keeping cacti alive for some reason... So unless there's been a rip in the space/time continuum, I don't think anyone would believe that I was growing veggies on my tiny little balcony in the city.

I love this dish so much, I make it quite frequently. I've not even been tempted to change it up, the flavors are so simple, but divine. This is really, really easy and fast to make. It reheats awesomely which is always a bonus for work lunches. Yay! I need a real name for this, but until I can think of something better, I'll call it

Potato, Tomato and Oregano Bake

2-3 lb baby light-skinned potatoes
1 package cherry tomatoes
1 package faux chicken (I use Yves brand), seitan, tofu or tempeh
1 bunch oregano
1/4 Cup olive oil
1/4 Cup red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Preheat your oven to 350F degrees.

If your potatoes are on the big side, cut them in half or thirds to make them uniform. Boil the potatoes for about 15 minutes or until they're soft when you stick a fork in them. After they're just soft, drain the water.

With a small knife, poke a little hole or make a small slice in the skin of each of the tomatoes. Boil the tomatoes for 1 minute. Immediately drain them and rinse with very cold water. Because you poked a little hole in the tomatoes, you can now easily peel the skins off. What are you waiting for? Start peeling those suckers!

Set aside 3 sprigs of oregano and chop the rest. Make sure to chop it super fine. In a small bowl, add the oregano, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Wisk all of this together until the oil and vinegar have cominbed. If you have a blender, food processor or immersion blender, you can skip chopping the oregano and just blend all of this stuff together. I like to use my immersion blender for this.

Add the potatoes, peeled tomatoes and chick pieces (or seitan, tofu, etc.) and pour the oregano mixture on top. Gently stir the stuff in the pan until everything is coated. Put the last 3 oregano sprigs on top and push them into the potatoes a little bit. They're not just for decoration, you want the sprigs to add some extra oregano flavor.

Put the pan in the oven and bake for 35 minutes. Let everything cool for 5-10 minutes and then dig in! I can usually get 3-4 servings from this depending on how hungry I am. Yummy!