Spicy ratatouille
For my family, I love making this ratatouille. Packed with vegetables, full of flavour and fairly easy to make.
Ingredients for 3 hungry adults:
1 large pack of macaroni vegetables, chopped (usually around 400 grams, with leek, onion and bell pepper)
2 cloves of garlic and optionally: a few sprigs of fresh rosemary or thyme
3 bell peppers
1 courgette
250 grams of ripe cherry tomatoes
1 small tin of tomato purée
1 tin or 1 bag of cooked lentils (200 grams)
1 tablespoon of Chinese sambal in oil (‘crispy chilli in oil’, available at the Asian shop) or regular sambal
Whatever you like: 1 bunch of basil or parsley or coriander
Optional: 200 grams of spiced sausages, or 150 grams of vegan spiced mince or 150 grams of feta
Vegetable oil
Optional: (wholemeal) baguette
For the salad:
A mix of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, olives, etc., with a tangy dressing.
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 240 degrees.
Heat some oil in a large frying pan. Remove the casing from the sausages and fry the meat until it colours and is cooked through. Crumble it while frying with a spatula and scrape off the bits stuck to the pan (you can add a little water at the end to help loosen everything). Or briefly fry the vegan mince. Remove everything from the pan, including the bits stuck to the bottom, and set aside.
Add some oil to the pan and fry the macaroni vegetable mix for 15-20 minutes over medium heat. Peel and finely chop the garlic (optional: finely chop the rosemary leaves or strip the thyme leaves from the stems). Add this to the vegetable mix and continue frying. Once the vegetables are soft and slightly browned, add the purée with a few tablespoons of water, mix it through the vegetables and turn off the heat.
In the meantime, cut the bell peppers and courgette into cubes of about 1.5 by 1.5 cm and toss in a bowl with a little oil and salt. Spread out on a baking tray lined with baking paper and place in the oven for about 8 minutes. When slightly tender and lightly coloured, remove the vegetables from the oven and turn off the oven (unless you want to warm the baguette).
Prepare the salad and mix the dressing (e.g. 2 tablespoons of olive oil with 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 small teaspoon of mustard).
Finely chop the bunch of herbs and cut the tomatoes into wedges. Add to the vegetable mix, along with the roasted vegetables, sambal, the fried (vegan) mince and the lentils. Stir everything well and turn the heat back on for a few minutes, while continuing to stir, so everything gets warm. If you chose the feta: crumble it and sprinkle it on top of the warm ratatouille.
Place the pan on the table, along with the salad, the dressing and optionally the baguette.
Enjoy your meal!
By: Marleen
Categories: Kitchen secrets
- General
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