Easy Real Food Ratatouille Recipe

GAPS Legal Ratatouille Recipe

I am very excited to share this recipe with you, and honored to give credit to Shaye at The Elliot Homestead for the original recipe (which I adapted with few changes). I highly encourage you to check out her webpage. She has amazing and delicious home-grown food recipes, and I have never tried anything of hers that I didn't like!

This recipe is a warm and filling side, and can even function as a meal on days your body is wanting very little meat. The lard creates a stoutness to this recipe that fills you up without making it feel like a heavy meal. Remember, we need fat-soluble vitamins to help us absorb the nutrients from vegetables, even after we cook them (check out more about this in The One About Fat blog I wrote a while back).

In addition to being a lighter meal at times, I have found this recipe to be a wonderful support food when I am stressed, cold or tired and need a little more in the way of carbohydrates and fat. Because that's pretty much what this is!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much (and as many times) as I do!

Onward!

A few cooking tips before we get started:

1. Use fat and salt liberally and with each new vegetable addition. Each vegetable needs some salt all on it's own to make it delicious, and if you are running low on fat, add some more!!!

2. As Shaye taught me, cooking each vegetable separately is what makes all the difference in this dish. This recipe does take time to prepare, but is well worth the effort.

3. To best manage your time you can either pre-cut all the vegetables (even the night before) so all have to do is remove, add, stir and wait for time to pass in cooking. You can then do other tasks around the kitchen while your vegetables cook. OR you can focus all your time on this dish (as the instructions are below). Chop the next vegetable while the previous one is cooking. This fills your time almost perfectly until the next one, but you will be working solid on this dish that entire time—don't plan to do other things while this dish is cooking. I much prefer this way, I can give full attention to the dish, which I think often makes food taste better!

4. Make a large batch! I make this for me and it lasts a couple days before I eat it all. Days of happiness.

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant

• 2-3 zucchini (depending on size)

• 1 medium yellow onion

• 6 organic tomatoes

• 6-8 whole garlic cloves

• 2 large sprigs Thyme

• 3 Bay leaves

• Lard or tallow (can use avocado oil, but lard is best!)

Directions

Roughly chop onion and dice the eggplant.

Heat enough fat in a large, deep cast iron skillet to coat the bottom of the pan, about half a cup. Warm on low heat.

Add onion and garlic to skillet. Add thyme sprigs in whole and bay leaves. Cook on medium heat until the onions are soft.

Remove garlic, bay leaves, and thyme, setting aside. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onions, reserving as much oil as possible in the pan. Add onions to a dish with a lid. Cover and set aside.

Add eggplant, a good pinch of salt, and the garlic, bay leaves and thyme back to the skillet. You will also need to add another 1-2 more tablespoons of fat, since the eggplant soaks it up. Cook on low-medium heat until soft. If you need to move the process along, you can add a little water and cover to help the eggplant steam. Steam the eggplant for 8 minutes, then uncover and sauté on medium heat to finish it up.

While the eggplant is cooking, slice the zucchini. I recommend that you cut into quarters to cook faster (I forgot to for the picture!)

When the eggplant is soft, remove garlic, bay leaves, and thyme, setting aside. Using a slotted spoon, remove the eggplant, reserving as much oil as possible in the pan. Add the eggplant to the same dish with a lid as the onions.

Add an extra tablespoon of oil to the pan. Add zucchini to skillet, along with the garlic, bay leaves and thyme sprigs.

Cook zucchini with lid on until soft, stirring occasionally.

Add tomatoes to skillet and cook just a couple minutes, until they are almost soft.

Add onion and eggplant back to pan. Mix and allow everything to cook together for a couple minutes, melding the flavors.

This is great served hot or cold. The flavors meld with time, making leftovers even better, if that's possible!

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Print

Ratatouille

Author: Amy Mihaly, Be Well Clinic

prep time: cook time: total time:

ingredients:

• 1 eggplant
• 2-3 zucchini (depending on size)
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 6 organic tomatoes
• 6-8 whole garlic cloves
• 2 large sprigs Thyme
• 3 Bay leaves
• Lard or tallow (can use avocado oil, but lard is best!)

instructions:

How to cook Ratatouille

1. Roughly chop onion and dice the eggplant.
2. Heat enough fat in a large, deep cast iron skillet to coat the bottom of the pan, about half a cup. Warm on low heat.
3. Add onion and garlic to skillet. Add thyme sprigs in whole and bay leaves. Cook on medium heat until the onions are soft.
4. Remove garlic, bay leaves, and thyme, setting aside. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onions, reserving as much oil as possible in the pan. Add onions to a dish with a lid. Cover and set aside.
5. Add eggplant, a good pinch of salt, and the garlic, bay leaves and thyme back to the skillet. You will also need to add another 1-2 more tablespoons of fat, since the eggplant soaks it up. Cook on low-medium heat until soft. If you need to move the process along, you can add a little water and cover to help the eggplant steam. Steam the eggplant for 8 minutes, then uncover and sauté on medium heat to finish it up.
6. While the eggplant is cooking, slice the zucchini. I recommend that you cut into quarters to cook faster (I forgot to for the picture!)
7. When the eggplant is soft, remove garlic, bay leaves, and thyme, setting aside. Using a slotted spoon, remove the eggplant, reserving as much oil as possible in the pan. Add the eggplant to the same dish with a lid as the onions.
8. Add an extra tablespoon of oil to the pan. Add zucchini to skillet, along with the garlic, bay leaves and thyme sprigs.
9. Cook zucchini with lid on until soft, stirring occasionally.
10. Add tomatoes to skillet and cook just a couple minutes, until they are almost soft.
11. Add onion and eggplant back to pan. Mix and allow everything to cook together for a couple minutes, melding the flavors.
12. This is great served hot or cold. The flavors meld with time, making leftovers even better, if that's possible!

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