Easy No-fail Ratatouille

An all time favorite! This Easy No-Fail Ratatouille is a great choice for a healthy meal!

Remember when I told you I have some friends in Seattle and one of them lives in Camano Island? We visited them again some days before we came to east coast. I haven’t told you how Mohammad Reza and I became friends, here is the story:

Almost 6 years ago, a sweet friend of a friend name Safura came up with a great idea. She decided to hold a food festival among her friends and gathered everyone in one place and everyone cooked their favorite food, ate it together, and voted for foods in different categories and the winners received presents. Through years our friendly festival grew and grew, became more sophisticated and had participants from all around the world since many participants (including me) were out of Iran. Mohammad Reza is one of many friends I made in that festival.

One year I made this easy no-fail ratatouille which looked so pretty and everyone liked it. That year I sliced everything with my food processor and it came out so OCD friendly. It is totally fine to just cut everything by hand and toss it in the oven, what matters is the sauce you have under the veggies. That’s what makes the whole thing so delicious.

Ratatouille was known as a “peasant dish” before but now it’s even served in restaurants and I count it as a “healthy, family-friendly dish” which is easy to make and there are countless ways to make this delicious dish. Originally, ratatouille includes zucchini, tomatoes, red and green pepper, onion and garlic but these days eggplant is being used too. I always make ratatouille with eggplant because I really like the color combination.

I also add carrots but it’s again a personal taste of mine. I don’t slice them really thin so they have a bit of crunch when cooked. Now imagine all these beautiful colors of green, orange, red and black sitting beautifully in a dish, smelling like a French kitchen full of life and happiness. Whenever I make this dish, I always think of all the families that had this dish around a table, talked about their day, their happy and sad experiences and helped each other to overcome problems. Isn’t family just the best thing ever in the world?

Now for this dish, take out a dish that can be in the oven (I always use Pyrex) and get some tomato sauce!

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Easy No-fail Ratatouille

An easy French dish, vegetarian and delicious. Your kitchen will smell like a French kitchen. Bon Appetite!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Servings 4 -5

Calories 120 kcal

Author Shadi

Ingredients

Base Sauce:

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 big onion diced
• 1 can tomato sauce or 4 crushed tomatoes
• Salt and pepper to taste

Ratatouille:

• 1 big eggplant thinly sliced
• 2 medium-sized zucchinis thinly sliced
• 3 firm tomatoes sliced
• 2 medium-sized carrots thinly sliced
• 1 orange or red bell pepper sliced
• 1 green bell pepper sliced

Instructions

Base Sauce:

1. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat.
2. Sauté onion and garlic until translucent.
3. Add tomato sauce and let cook until the sauce thickens a bit.
4. Add salt and pepper. Turn the heat off and set the sauce aside.

Ratatouille:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180. Take two medium-sized or one big Pyrex dish and rub very little olive oil at the bottom of the dish.
2. Pour the base sauce in the dish.
3. Take the sliced vegetables, starting along the outer edge of the dish, arrange them in the dish, alternating between the vegetables.
4. Drizzle the vegetables with some olive oil and add some salt and pepper.
5. Cover loosely with some aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes.
6. Serve hot with some plain Greek yogurt or sour cream.