Ratatouille

Ratatouille isn’t just the name of a movie but also a delicious dish that you can make at home. It’s vegan and uses up all of the zucchini, yellow squashes, eggplants, and tomatoes that you’re probably getting out of your garden right about now. This recipe serves 8 and it can be done in under an hour and a half including bake time.

Ingredients For Sauce:

• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 onion diced
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1 red bell pepper diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper diced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 28 ounces of crushed and cooked tomatoes or canned crushed tomatoes
• 2 Tablespoons of chopped fresh basil

Ingredients For Herb Seasoning:

• 2 Tablespoons fresh chopped basil
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 Tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Main Ingredients:

• 2 eggplants
• 6 Roma Tomatoes
• 2 yellow summer squash
• 2 zucchinis

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Slice the eggplant, tomatoes, squash, and zucchinis into 1/16th of an inch rounds.
3. Set aside in a refrigerator with an airtight bowl while making the rest of the ingredients.
4. To make the sauce heat olive oil in a 12-inch oven-safe pan over medium-high heat. A Dutch oven can work in this case.
5. Sautee the onions, garlic, and bell Peppers together until soft or about 10 minutes.
6. Season this mixture with salt and pepper before adding crushed tomatoes.
7. Stir the ingredients until fully mixed together and then remove from the heat.
8. Add basil to the top and stir once more. Smooth the surface with a spatula.
9. Arrange the sliced veggie rounds in alternating patterns. For example, an eggplant round, a tomato round, a squash round, and then a zucchini round. Do this on top of the sauce from the outer edge of the pan moving towards the middle.
10. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper.
11. Next, make the herb seasoning in a small bowl. Mix together the garlic, basil, thyme, parsley, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Spoon the herb seasoning over the top of the vegetables.
12. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes in your oven.
13. After 40 minutes, uncover the pan and bake for another 20 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
14. Serve this dish while it’s still hot as either a main dish or a side.

Tips:

• This dish can be saved in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to one week. It can be reheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit in the oven for 15 minutes or microwaved until warm enough.
• Using a mandolin makes slicing quick and ensures even cooking.
• Using small skinny eggplants is better as they pair better with the zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes.
• To sweeten the tomato sauce at the bottom of the dish, add a teaspoon of sugar or a dash of red wine vinegar.
• If you are watching how much fat you consume, half of the olive oil can be replaced with vegetable broth.
• This is an excellent dish to bring to cookouts, potlucks, and get-togethers. In the summer months, it uses up a lot of vegetables we find in our garden that we don’t know what to do with. It can be a free or almost free meal with proper garden planning.