Baked Ratatouille Recipe

Baked Ratatouille Recipe, a delightful French dish that is vegan, gluten free, and so deliciously healthy. Bonus point, it it a favourite with the whole family. Serve it on its own or as a side dish for any meat or meat alternatives.

Have you seen the movie Ratatouille? It was brilliant, I loved it! Yeah, l know, it's for kids, but l love these kind of movies. Not that the dish was not known enough, but l think that the movie really spread its fame all over the world.

French people can't have enough of it, and there's no surprise, it's a great combination of delicious vegetables. And that's why l colourful veggies, they make everything look and taste so much better.

What is Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a traditional French stewed vegetable dish that can be enjoyed as a main meal or a side dish. There are lots of variations of Ratatouille.

The dish can be cooked as a stew, or you can sautée the vegetables separately before popping them in the oven to finish the dish off. The most commonly used vegetables are tomatoes, aubergines (eggplant), peppers, onions, garlic, but courgettes (zucchini), squash or others can be used.

And then, let's not forget about the herbs, they really give this recipe the aroma we love. Feel free to use Herbs de Provence, basil, thyme, parsley or anything you like. Either dried or fresh, they are great to bring more flavour and a nice earthy kick.

While the nicely arranged variation is actually called Ratatouille Tian, the traditional Ratatouille is more like a stew/chopped veggies, and not that fancy looking. The taste is great, by all means, but arranging it nicely makes it even more appealing.

HOW TO MAKE RATATOUILLE

If you want to go for the nicely arranged ratatouille, a few simple ingredients is all we need. And a few herbs, for a bit of extra goodness.

• chop the yellow onion finely, mince the garlic, and combine them with the tomato passata, adding seasoning and herbs to taste
• spread the mixture over the bottom of an oven-proof dish
• finely slice the aubergine (eggplant), tomatoes, red onion, courgettes (zucchini) and peppers, and arrange them in the dish, alternating between one slice of eggplant, one of tomato, one zucchini, and one onion, peppers, until we use the vegetables up
• drizzle over the olive oil, and season with salt, pepper and dried basil
• cover the dish with a kitchen foil, and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for a further 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are tender

WHAT TO SERVE WITH BAKED RATATOUILLE

Ratatouille is an excellent dish on its own, it's light, but deliciously filling, and it can be a superb vegetarian/vegan dish for every occasion.

If you choose to serve it as a side, the choices are endless. We had ours with roasted chicken legs, and the whole meal was absolutely delicious, and super easy to make too.

If you are planning a bbq, no side dish could be better than this one, as the ratatouille can be enjoyed either hot or cold. Any grilled meat would do, chicken wings, Roasted Spatchcock Chicken and the list is endless.

If you have leftover ratatouille, you can finely chop the veggies up and add them to cooked pasta instead of your good old tomato sauce. You can a lovely light dish with rich French flavours. Do give it a go!

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