Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Overdosing on Eggplant (Part 2)

So since I mentioned we are eggplant lovers in this house, my 11 year old son requested ratatouille for dinner last night. Much to his delight, and my own I said yes because I had everything necessary for the dish. Really you can play with this one, and experiment. There are specific ingredients that I personally prefer to use with it though.

I was quite proud of my son too because he helped me with dinner. It's not a rare occurrence in my house, in fact almost every morning he makes breakfast for everyone, eggs, french toast, pancakes...yep, sure does. He sliced the onion, sauteed the veggies, and took complete control of the chicken. He seasoned it, and sauteed it on his own. He will not starve when he is on his own. Okay so I'm bragging, yeah I know, oh well, ya know what it's my blog :)

In case you have not seen the Disney flick, or are not familiar with the dish, ratatouille is a traditional French meal. It was typically served among peasants, and the lesser affluent. Let me let you guys in on something, the peasants had a sweet dish in their hands, and were definitely not going with out anything when they ate this wonderful meal.

Here was my Ratatouille last night:

1 Average sized eggplant (cubed)
1 large tomatoes (diced)
2 Green bell peppers (sliced)
1 Medium red onion (sliced or diced)
1 Medium zucchini (diced)
1 Medium yellow squash (sliced and then cut in half once)
3 garlic cloves (minced or sliced)
Sea Salt to taste
Ground pepper to taste
Garlic Powder to taste
Coconut oil
1 large tomato roughly cut up (reserve this for food processor)
1/2 Cup Sun Dried Tomatoes, the soaked in oil kind not dry (reserve this for food processor)

In my large cast iron skillet I heated some coconut oil along with the garlic and onions.
After the onions softened I placed everything else in the skillet to cook down a bit (about 8 minutes or so)
While all is cooking in the skillet, take the other tomato and sun dried tomatoes and put them in the food processor to make a sauce
Next add the sauce to the skillet, let every marinate in the skillet on low for about 10 minutes


Serve in its own in a bowl, on top of quinoa like we did (was great BTW), or on anything else. I also had garlic chicken tenders on the table, and kale salad.




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