Name: Farmer's Market Ratatouille
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 80 min
Yield: 4 -6
Ingredients: 1 eggplant (peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes); 1/4 cup olive oil (plus additional for serving); 1 large onion (sliced (I used Vidalla)); 3 cloves garlic (minced); 1/2 cup whole Spanish Green Olives; 3 large green peppers (julienned); 3 cups zucchini (sliced into 1/2 inch slices); 2 cups seeded (peeled,and quartered tomatoes (or one 15 ounce can whole plum tomatoes.); 1 teaspoon dried oregano (or 1 tablespoon fresh); sour cream or plain yogurt for serving

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Farmer’s Market Ratatouille Stew: A comforting eggplant vegetable stew made with farm fresh ingredients. This is the perfect comfort dish to make when you want to use up all the garden’s bounty. Vegan. Gluten Free. Paleo.

Do you have an over abudance of fresh produce from your garden? Has your zucchini overtaken everything or are you begging people to take your fresh tomatoes?

Well, good for you! That is NOT me!!

Unfortunately, I have been cursed with a black thumb. I grew up with a backyard garden that always prospered and my husband grew up on a huge farm. You would think we would be pros at the whole garden thing. Nope. Not happening. Even after we had a soil analysis done and invested tons of money into creating the “perfect” pH and balance of nutrients. It is really quite sad.

I am beyond thankful for my CSA and farmer’s market. I am blessed with beautiful produce that I was not given the opportunity to kill.

My latest finds were what are typical this time of year–zucchini, eggplant, green peppers, and tomatoes. Which really worked to my advantage because I was craving Ratatouille.

Ratatouille

Ratatouille is the perfect dish to use up any abundance of vegetables your garden produces.

What is Ratatouille?

Ratatouille is vegetable stew that originated from Provence, a region in France. This area is known for it’s farms and fresh produce. And this recipe for vegetable stew came as a result of all the farmer’s bounty.

Ingredients for Ratatouille

It’s common to find eggplant, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, zucchini, garlic, and herbs ratatouille recipes.

As long as you have an eggplant, you can essentially have this easy vegetable stew. You can replace yellow squash for the zucchini or red peppers for the green peppers. Throw in cherry tomatoes or beefsteak tomatoes, or roma tomatoes, as I did. If you are really lucky, use Heirloom tomatoes–just be sure to invite me over!!

How to Make Rataouille

The first step is to prep your eggplant. You must peel and dice the eggplant. Then place on a drying rack over a cookie sheet or in a colander and salt well. This will release all the natural bitterness an eggplant has (and if you think you don’t like eggplant, you may have not had it prepared correctly which makes a world of difference.) I let the eggplant sit for about 30 minutes to an hour.

Prepare remaining vegetables for Ratatouille Recipe: The next step is really easy–get those chopped veggies stewing and prepare yourself for some pure veggie comfort!

A few notes about Ratatouille Recipe:

I use green olives instead of black olives. I am just not a fan of regular old olives. Kalamata would be good as well.
Use high quality olive oil in this recipe as it gives the veggies so much flavor.
I love to top this with sour cream or Greek yogurt–that little bit of tang and creaminess adds so much. Omit for Paleo or Vegan.
This dish is fabulous when soaked up with crusty French bread, but easily a meal on it’s own.
If you don’t wish to use fresh tomatoes, use a 15 ounce can of plum tomatoes.
If you choose to use fresh tomatoes, as I did, you will want to dip the fresh tomatoes into boiling water for about 10-20 seconds to remove skin (it will peel off easily after this tip.)

Summer Produce Recipes

Zucchini Bread Pancakes
Eggplant Parmesan
Grilled Vegetable Lasagna
Skinny Zucchini Casserole from Give Recipe

Ratatouille Stew Recipe

Vegan If you choose to use fresh tomatoes, as I did, you will want to dip the fresh tomatoes into boiling water for about 10-20 seconds to remove skin (it will peel off easily after this tip.)

5 from 2 votes