Bastardized Ratatouille with Grassfed Burger Patty…

  
Growing up, I remember my mom, who is an amazing cook, making Ratatouille on several occasions. Ratatouille is basically a French dish of stewed vegetables including onions, eggplant, peppers, in a tomato base.  

  
My bastardized version did not include onions (the one in the house had gone bad), nor eggplant, as generally I can’t stand eggplant. It’s such a pretty vegetable but I don’t like the taste, nor texture. Sorry pretty eggplant and eggplant lovers. I substituted zucchini. I also was out of garlic, so I used copious amounts of garlic powder.  And while Mom would squish the canned tomatoes by hand, when ripe fresh ones weren’t available, I opted for marinara sauce, which thankfully had onions and garlic in it. Oh and just to make sure it was totally unauthentic I added broccoli because it my world most things are better with broccoli. 😉 And lastly I made it on the spicy side, because I like a little kick.  All in all it came out really tasty! Mr. Foggy Foodie picked up the cooked burger patties from the local hamburger joint on his way home from work just as I was finishing the stew. As Hannibal from the A-Team used to say, “I love it when a plan comes together.”  

Bastardized Ratatouille:  
Ingredients

• 1 yellow pepper (this looked the best in the store)
• 3 zucchinis
• 2 heads broccoli
• 1 tbsp Organic garlic powder
• Sea salt to taste
• 1 tsp Red pepper flakes (I used a palm full. I don’t generally measure.) 
• 1 tbsp Organic Refined Coconut Oil
• 1/2 jar of Marinara sauce of your choice. I used this Organic Marinara Sauce
• Olive oil for garnish. We used lemon infused. The lemon added a nice brightness. Like this one.

Instructions:

1. Chop veggies in chunks;
2. Heat coconut oil (I used refined so that it did not impart coconut flavor);
3. Add veggies, salt, garlic powder and red pepper flakes;
4. Simmer on low until veggies are cooked. In traditional ratatouille the veggies are stewed down pretty far. I like a little more body to my veggies so i let them get soft but not completely stewed;
5. Add in marinara sauce and allow it to heat and meld; 
6. Serve under your favorite protein or as a side dish;
7. Enjoy!

Let me know if you give this a try or share your favorite traditional ratatouille recipe. 

Yours in bastardizing Classic French dishes,

The Foggy Foodie