Summer time means time to eat more vegetables. Warm weather and lighter food go together. Also, I grow vegetables with varying degrees of success. Still not sure why given my childhood memories of vegetable garden serfdom. This recipe is a great ways to use what you’ve grown plus a few store cupboard staples to produce satisfying yet light food.

I was challenged to eat ten different vegetables in a single day – this recipe was the result and knocked out 8 vegetables in a single recipe. It was a Davinator favourite from the very first taste. It keeps well in the refrigerator for two or three days. I have not tried to freeze this. I’m not sure that freezing is a great choice because it will have a negative impact the texture of the chickpeas and the potatoes. But needs must sometimes.

The recipe is very flexible – the crucial elements are chickpeas, tomatoes and potatoes. Beyond that feel free to improvise. It is easy and forgiving to make a double batch as well.

I use my slow cooker for this and it takes 5 to 6 hours. You could also use a covered casserole in a low to moderate oven for the same time. Slow cooker does not heat up the kitchen in the same way.

Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 400 gram can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 400 gram can of chopped tomatoes or 6 fresh ripe tomatoes peeled and chopped
• Olive oil for sautéing vegetables
• 2 garlic cloves peeled and crushed or chopped fine
• 2 onions peeled and sliced
• 4 celery sticks, sliced
• 4 medium carrots, scrubbed and sliced
• 1 pepper (red, yellow or green) cored seeded and chopped
• 1 tsp mixed herbs (use any mixture of oregano, thyme, basil)
• 225 grams of potatoes in 2 cm pieces (if using new potatoes or young potatoes a good scrub is enough, don’t peel them. More mature potatoes you might want to peel)
• Vegetable stock cube or 1 tsp of loose stock granules
• salt and pepper to taste
• Chopped olives and either crumbled feta cheese or Greek yoghurt to serve).

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil with a small knob of butter in a large deep skillet until warm. Get your slow cooker or casserole dish ready.
2. Add the garlic, cook over low heat until softened.
3. Onions next and turn up the heat to medium. (Tip – I use a handheld mandolin and slice many of the vegetables straight into the pan. I dislike extended vegetable prep and this speeds things up). Cook until softened and starting to turn transparent.
4. Add the celery, carrots and pepper. Continue to cook over medium heat. I often pour a generous slug of brandy over the vegetables at this point and turn up the heat to high until the raw alcohol smell has gone.
5. Add the stock cube and a bit of water to soften it. When your stock cube has dissolved pour in the tomatoes with their juice. If you used fresh tomatoes, add a quarter cup of water. Bring the mixture to a simmer.
6. Transfer to your slow cooker or oven proof casserole. Stir in the potatoes, chickpeas and herbs.
7. Wait. Your kitchen will start to smell great. Stir from time to time and take a sneaky taste. It’s ready to eat when the potatoes have reached a good eating consistency. Correct salt and pepper, if necessary.
8. Serve with Greek yoghurt or feta cheese and a handful of chopped olives. Lovely with a chunk of crusty sourdough bread.

This is an easy recipe to adapt for vegans. Eliminate butter and make sure you’re using vegan stock cubes. Then consider your toppings. A vegan yoghurt or cheese would be perfect.

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Ratatouille is a classic vegetable stew from the south of France. Don’t show this blog to any French people you know because we’re going to colour outside the lines with ingredients and preparation methods. Recipe is great for the vegetarians and vegans. We are trying for zero food waste and fewer trips to the market for ingredients so this recipe is all about flexibility.

Side note: Ratatouille, the movie, is one of those Pixar cartoons that’s secretly aimed at adults but also amuses children. We’ve got access to Disney+ while our son is home from university and we are shamelessly exploiting it. In the movie, they make an incredibly posh nouvelle cuisine version of ratatouille. We’re not cooking that today. There are posh versions – carefully colour coordinated and layered. That’s cooking as performance art and nobody has the time for that.

The beating heart of ratatouille is aubergine (eggplant you Americans) and tomatoes. Those are the only two mandatory ingredients for me (ducking now while purists hurl things at me). Most ratatouille also includes bell peppers, courgettes (zucchini again for you Americans), onions and garlic.

I consulted the hive mind of Twitter for other things you can and cannot put in ratatouille. No support for root vegetables (I suggested parsnips and carrots) and that includes potatoes, sweet potatoes and radishes. In fact several Tweeters more or less accused me of cooking heresy. Also beans (as in pulses) are verboten. I would tend to avoid cabbage as it has a strong taste and it needs bacon to make it edible. Cucumbers have so much liquid I would also avoid them.

Things you can put in ratatouille – pretty much any other vegetable in just about any form. Frozen mixed veg, corn from cans, summer squash, pumpkin, leeks, shallots. Kale, spinach and other sturdy greens are also acceptable. Go for it.

I consulted my vegetable drawer and my store cupboards and my latest ratatouille had one aubergine, two tins of tomatoes, one red bell pepper, 2/3 of an orange bell pepper, one truly ancient courgette, some leeks and assorted onions (one Spanish, two white ones). I found some dried basil in the store cupboard that expired in 2007. 2007. Used that too.

I’ve included the ingredients in the recipe in the order that I put them in the pot. I use a large deep enamelled cast iron soup pot, don’t use aluminium – it doesn’t like the acid from tomatoes. You can find hundreds of ratatouille recipes on line – this one works for me.

Recipe

Ingredients

• olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped fine (I don’t cook with garlic but its widely used)
• 2 medium onions, peeled, halved and sliced thinly (I use a hand held mandolin and slice them directly into the pot)
• 2 bell peppers, cored seeded and chopped into cubes of about 1.5 cm (half an inch or so) pieces
• 1 medium aubergine (eggplant) chopped into cubes, same size
• 1 medium courgette (zucchin) chopped into cubes, same size
• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes with juice or 6 fresh tomatoes, cored and seeded
• bunch of fresh basil or 2 tablespoons of dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Coat the bottom of the stock pot with a generous layer of olive oil and heat until it smells sweet (medium heat). Add the garlic, give it a couple of minutes.
2. Add the sliced onions, stir to coat with oil and cook until they begin to soften, about five minutes
3. Repeat with the bell peppers, then the aubergine, then the courgette.
4. Add the tomatoes and stir to coat. Bring to a slow simmer and cook for about 20 minutes once simmering.
5. Watch to see that it doesn’t get too dry and start to stick to the bottom of the pan. Cautiously add water if it looks dry.
6. About 5 minutes before it’s finished add the basil (chopped if fresh) and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve up with your favourite carbohydrate base. I’ve seen the Davinator eat ratatouille on bread, pasta and mashed potatoes (not all at the same time). It’s been eaten as a breakfast dish with a couple of fried eggs as well.

It will last several days in the refrigerator.

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