Your winter veggie basket looks impressive. I can see some zucchini, tomatoes, squash, eggplants, and colorful peppers. That’s it! You can make one of the most delicious seasonal dishes if you know the ratatouille recipe. With lots of veggies and the punch of micronutrients, it’s also one of the healthiest dishes to try.
In addition, most of the veggies used in this dish have high fiber and water content. So, this dish will boost your satiety level and can be a staple in your everyday meal if you are on the path of losing weight.
Also, winter calls for a lot of celebrations, and it’s the season of festivals. However, if you are an introvert and don’t love to socialize much, you can easily try this recipe at home.
Learning The Authentic Ratatouille Recipe
Are you ready to learn the ratatouille recipe? Pour a glass of wine and enjoy listening to your favorite music. You can also replace high-carb meals with ratatouille to enjoy health benefits. ????????
The cooking process is so easy that you will have almost a therapeutic experience while cooking the dish.
So, let’s get started with the ingredients and recipe! Once the recipe is ready, dine with yourself and laugh your lungs out while watching the “Ratatouille” movie.
Ingredients For Making Ratatouille
Eggplants: 2-3 (Medium to Large Size)
Zucchinis: 3-4
Red and Yellow Bell Peppers: 1 Each
Ripe Tomatoes: 4-5
Onion: 1 (Peel and Thinly Slice the Onion)
Cloves Of Garlic: 4-5
How To Make Ratatouille?
Cooking & Preparation Time: Around 1 Hour
Calories: 260 calories
- First, cut the eggplants and zucchini into small cubes. Make sure that the eggplant cubes are slightly larger than the zucchini cubes. Otherwise, the eggplant cubes will melt, and the zucchini will not be cooked properly.
- Now, cut the red and yellow bell peppers into small bite-sized pieces.
- To slice the tomatoes, you will have to pour hot water on them. Then after a few minutes, you need to keep them in cold water.
- Then, peel and slice the tomatoes. You also need to scoop out the seeds using a spoon.
- Once the chopping is done, heat olive oil in a pan. Fry the eggplant and zucchini cubes separately in the oil for around 5 minutes. Don’t overcook the veggies at this stage.
- Then, heat some oil in the pan again and add onion slices and crushed garlic in the oil. Saute them for 1 or 2 minutes, and then add the veggies.
- Keep sauteing the veggies, and your dish will be ready in 5-7 minutes.
Serve ratatouille with fresh herbs and boiled chickpeas to make the dish healthier. For herbs, you can use fresh basil, thyme, or oregano. When I love to have it spicy, I also add some paprika powder to it. Nevertheless, do not go overboard with the use of spices. Too much use of spices will take away the freshness of the recipe and impact the health quotient.
Cherish it with a glass of Tropical Island green smoothie for the afternoon meal.
Making Ratatouille Recipe In Oven
You can also make the ratatouille recipe in the oven. The change in the cooking medium will bring a lot of change in the texture and overall flavor of the recipe despite using the same ingredients.
Let’s learn the recipe.
Making Ratatouille In Oven
Cooking And Preparation Time: Around 1 Hour 15 Minutes
While making the ratatouille recipe in the oven, you have to cut the vegetables differently than usual. While cooking in the conventional method, you have to cut the veggies into small cubs. However, to make the recipe in the oven, you will have to cut the vegetables into thin, round slices.
Getting The Sauce Ready
Here, there is also a twist! If you are making the recipe in the oven, you have to make the tomato sauce separately. To make the sauce, you will need to heat oil in the pan. Add sliced onion and garlic to it. Then after sauteing the onion and chopped garlic, you need to add crushed tomato slices and mash the entire mix as much as possible to get the sauce ready.
You can infuse some more flavor into the sauce by adding herbs. Go for basil, thyme, oregano, or parsley to maintain familiarity with the taste.
Arranging The Veggies In The Baking Pan
The first layer of the baking pan will have the tomato sauce you have just made. The top layer will have vegetables.
You can be creative while arranging the veggies in the baking pan. Here is one idea for you. You can express your creativity by arranging the veggies in the baking pan.
To explain further, you are working with veggies in different shades. Zucchini has a distinct green shade. You will get yellow and red from the bell peppers, tomato slices will be red, and you will get purple or white from eggplants.
So, arrange the thin and round slices of the vegetables in an alternative order. The contrasting shades of the veggies will make the dish look most appetizing. Who needs artificial food dyes when you can have so many shades naturally?
Keep Your Herb Mix Ready
The herbs you use are going to add the necessary flavors and a refreshing taste to the dish. Instead of using a specific herb, you can make a herb mix with oregano, parsley, thyme, lemon grass, etc. Chop the herbs well and mix them with a pinch of salt and olive oil.
Once the mix is ready, spread it on the veggies and cover the pan with a baking sheet. After 40 minutes of baking, check once whether the veggies are ready or not.
Bake them for another 20 minutes to get your dish ready. You can serve ratatouille as a main dish or as a side. If you want to serve it the next day, refrigerate it and bake it in the oven for 15-20 minutes before serving.
Expert Tips For Getting The Ratatouille Recipe Right
You can be as creative as you want with the ratatouille recipe. You can add harissa paste to this vegetable dish if you love Egyptian flavor. Boiled and drained chickpeas are other elements that will add the necessary texture to the dish.
Further, to have Mediterranean flavors in your dish, you can add black olives. Do you love fish? You can add some chopped anchovies to your ratatouille recipe as well.
Final Words
It’s not easy to find a dish that scores equally on health and taste. Ratatouille recipe scores a perfect ten on both these parameters. It has high fiber, high water content, and micronutrients coming from the veggies. At the same time, if you follow the recipe well, you will enjoy good crunch and texture in your mouth. So, when are you making ratatouille at home? Don’t forget to share your experience and how you liked these recipe ideas.
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