Ratatouille With Herbed Brown Rice: Fruits and Veggies Monday

Wow! Hi everybody- Steemit has been down all day so it’s been next to impossible for me to get a #fruitsandveggiesmonday post up. Then, as I’m working on some of my famous pumpkin bread in the kitchen, my husband yells “Steemit is back up” and I immediately got to work on Fruits and Veggies Monday.
After missing last week I really didn’t want to stomach another week being absent… so thank you to the Steemit gurus for making this post possible :)

I don’t know if you know this but Lena, @lenasveganliving, is quite a gangster in the kitchen. I think we may forget that sometimes being that she hosts #fruitsandveggiesmonday rather than ‘participating’. I mean check out this Crispy Tofu Plate she whipped up last week… that plate is a piece of art I tell ya. I’m not even a fan of Tofu but Lena and someone else around here (cough, cough @pusteblume, cough) make tofu look Tofrikken-licious. Let’s give a big round of applause to the gangsters of Tofu 👏👏👏👏- Thanks, Lena, for doing what you do!

Anyway it’s good to be back Monday peeps and I’ve got a special recipe for you…

Ratatouille With Herbed Brown Rice

I can’t believe I’ve never made this delightfully perfect dish before. Don’t let the spice, Herbs de Provence, intimidate you- if you’ve never made this either than I highly recommend you change that 😋.

Just look at how gorgeous it is… needless to say I loved it and think you will too.

Ingredients

1 Can Crushed Tomatoes
1/4 Tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
4 Garlic Cloves (minced)
1 Tbs Fresh Basil (Chopped)
1 Tbs Herbs de Provence
1/2 Tsp Sea Salt
1/2 Tsp Black Pepper
1 Tbs Chili Powder
1 Red Onion (sliced)
1 Zucchini (sliced)
1 Yellow Squash (sliced)
1 Japanese Eggplant (sliced)
4 Roma Tomatoes (sliced)

Your start up will look something like that. I start by mixing the “sauce” first. Pour your can of tomatoes in a medium bowl, add the garlic, apple cider vinegar and all of your spices and mix well.

Don’t forget to add your chopped basil in there too!

Now take that “sauce” mixture and line the bottom of a casserole dish or whatever dish you’re using with a good amount (I used about 2/3rds of my sauce here).

Go ahead and pre heat your oven to 350 while you start your slicing (yes this prep work took a long time but the beauty of the finished product is well worth it).

I made my slices on the thicker side :)

The onion was actually the most difficult to gauge the thickness but we love onion so I went with thick.

I know what you’re thinking… ‘these are not onions’… I didn’t take a picture of those so am hoping you accept these sliced tomatoes instead :)

After slicing all of your vegetables, get to work on lining them up in your perfectly sauced dish. I started with what color I thought would be pretty next to each other but you can line them up any way you please.

This part actually takes quite some time too so be patient, the end product will be worth it.

So with the onions, I sliced them and realized the outer rings were too large… I cut them in half and stacked the halves on top of each other to maintain the line of the veggies.

Once I got all of the dish filled (I had a little left over but if you have a slightly bigger dish than you won’t) I took a picture… haha. It’s just so darn pretty to me.

Then I washed some organic brown rice and put it in a pot of water. I added freshly chopped tomato, onion, basil, sea salt, black pepper and herbs de provence.

You should evenly distribute your “set aside” sauce over the top of your veggies dish and I added more chopped basil and herbs.

I drizzled a little olive oil over top, so the veggies would stay moist and popped it right in the oven for about 45 minutes.

From here, I actually took it right back out and loosely wrapped foil over it and popped it right back in the oven for about 45 minutes.

And it came out looking like this 😋.…

And this…

The house smelled like a professional cooking show. I quickly looked up what herbs de provence was and where it’s used most often and came up with French cuisines. This would have to be the first time I made our house smell like French cuisine. The Mr. and I liked it so much we decided we need to try more French food/cooking… Next time we should pair this with a nice jammy Bordeaux. Definitely have a go at this dish if you’re like me and have shyed away from French foods- you won’t regret it.

Thank you so much for barring with me and all of my pictures. I appreciate your support and would love to hear about your experience with Ratatouille.

As always Pura Vida ✌️