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Want to be a French chef? You can d’ouille’ it!

Ratatouille is a vegetarian dish with lots of color, deep flavors and makes for a hearty meal or side dish.

In an online article, author Ossiana Tepfenhart explains that there are lots of foods we now consider “fancy” that were once “poor man’s food.”

Dishes that fit the bill include lobster, oysters and even caviar. 

Another dish that she could have included? Ratatouille. 

The summer stew, native to Nice, France, was once considered a humble dish for humble folks, but now (probably thanks, in part, to the animated movie with the same name), it’s a meal that sounds luxurious and expensive.

I’m here to tell you that it’s definitely not expensive (or it shouldn’t be), and it’s actually deceptively easy to make, as long as you’re ready to do a lot of vegetable chopping.

It’s also a great dinner if you have a vegetarian eating at your table and can also suit vegans, as long as you substitute vegan parmesan into the recipe.

And I know this is technically a summer dish, but I can tell you there were still enough veggies hanging around at my local grocery store to accomplish this one, and as a hearty, warm meal, it suits these early fall days perfectly.

This recipe is inspired by a recipe from Bianca Zapatka. You can find it on her blog at https://biancazapatka.com/en/best-ratatouille-recipe/. I mostly used a video by the blog “One Dollar Kitchen” you can find on Pinterest. I added extra garlic in my version and replaced fresh herbs with dried.

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Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a vegetarian dish with lots of color, deep flavors and makes for a hearty meal or side dish.
Course Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine French
Keyword basil, bell pepper, crushed tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, parmesan, rosemary, thyme, vegan, vegetarian, yellow onion, yellow squash

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
  • 1 yellow onion diced
  • 1 red pepper diced
  • 1 yellow pepper diced
  • 6-8 cloves garlic minced
  • 28 ounce crushed tomatoes
  • 4 teaspoons dried basil
  • 1 small eggplant sliced
  • 2 small yellow squash sliced
  • 2 small zucchini sliced
  • 6 roma tomatoes sliced
  • 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
  • 2 teaspoons dried thyme
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • grated parmesan for serving

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
  • Heat one tablespoon of the olive oil in a large, oven-proof skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and bell peppers and saute until they’re soft. Add the garlic and saute until it’s fragrant.
  • Add in the crushed tomatoes, basil, and salt and pepper, and cook for a couple minutes.
  • Arrange the eggplant, squash, zucchini and tomatoes in a spiral in the skillet, starting around the outside edge and working your way in. (Stand the slices up on their ends, rather than laying them flat, and arrange them tightly.)
  • Mix the remaining olive oil with the rosemary and thyme in a small bowl, and spoon or brush the mixture as evenly as possible over the top of the vegetables. Top with more salt and pepper.
  • Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for one hour.
  • Serve alone, with pasta or as a side dish and sprinkle servings with grated parmesan.

This has great depth of flavor, and we had an absolute ton of leftovers after making this for just two of us, so I would caution you to plan accordingly.

And after you make ratatouille at home, you can officially say you’ve practiced your French cooking. You don’t have to tell anyone its origins. After all, considering the prices nowadays of lobster, oysters or caviar, I think it’s safe to say things can change.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 14, 2021.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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Main Dish

‘Curry’ up and eat your veggies this summer

Eggplant sweet potato curry is a gorgeous dish and a flavorful way to enjoy your veggies.

Most of the time, I pick out a recipe based on what I already have in my fridge or pantry, but every once in awhile, I see something that looks so good that I end up going on a scavenger hunt in my local grocery store, seeking out some new ingredients to add to my arsenal.

This week, I was looking for something vegetarian and landed on this gorgeous curry recipe I found online.

The only ingredient that stumped me a bit was Harissa sauce, but after a bit of investigating, I found a simmering sauce that was a Harissa-based sauce, so I decided to grab it for my recipe. If you’re like me and have never heard of Harissa sauce before, it’s a pepper-based sauce that is generally spicy, although the one I found was decently mild. If you can’t find it in your local store, you could replace it with another pepper-based sauce like sriracha or tabasco.

I used a recipe from the blog “Vibrant Plate.” You can find the original post at https://www.vibrantplate.com/eggplant-sweet-potato-curry-vegan-gluten-free/. I increased the garlic and switched the directions a bit based on what was easiest for me.

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Eggplant Sweet Potato Curry

Eggplant sweet potato curry is a gorgeous dish and a flavorful way to enjoy your veggies.
Course Main Course
Keyword curry, eggplant, rice, sweet potato

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
  • 1 medium-sized yellow onion minced
  • 4-6 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1 rounded teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 eggplant
  • 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes
  • 13.5 ounces unsweetened coconut milk I used the light kind
  • 3 teaspoons Harissa sauce
  • salt to taste
  • 1 cup uncooked long-grain rice

Instructions

  • Prepare the eggplant and sweet potatoes by cubing each into about 1/2-inch cubes. There’s no need to peel the eggplant, but do peel the sweet potatoes.
  • Heat the oil over medium heat in a deep pan with a lid or Dutch oven and add the onion. Saute until the onions are soft and add the garlic and saute for a couple minutes until it just starts to smell really good.
  • Add the cumin, turmeric, and cayenne pepper and stir. Let it cook in the pan for about two minutes to roast the spices a bit.
  • Add in the eggplant, sweet potatoes, coconut milk and Harissa sauce and stir well.
  • Put the lid onto the pan and let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir again and test the doneness of the sweet potatoes. Keep simmering with the lid on, checking periodically, until the sweet potatoes are fork tender.
  • While the curry is simmering, cook the rice according to package instructions.
  • Once the sweet potatoes are done, add salt to taste and serve the curry over top of the rice.

This makes for fantastic leftovers, and the recipe author noted in the post that it freezes well, although our batch didn’t last long enough to find out.

It also didn’t end up being overly spicy. I think I might add a bit more Harissa next time I make it to hopefully increase the spice level a bit, and for those who are looking to incorporate more vegetables without sacrificing flavor, I highly recommend giving this a try.

Plus, it could give you a tour of some new shelves at the grocery store. Who knows what else you might find?

This piece first appeared in print on June 6, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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