Meatless Monday with Classic Ratatouille

Hello and welcome (back) to the Miratel blog and thanks for stopping by for another Meatless Monday vegetarian recipe share to help make going meatless one day per week easier. The Meatless Monday pledge aims to reduce meat consumption 15% to preserve personal and planetary health and Miratel supports this great initiative and considers it part of its CSR business strategies.

Tonight for dinner we are making the very epitome of French Provençal cooking a classic ratatouille. This meal is perfect for a rainy summer night and uses fresh seasonal produce. Our dish comes courtesy of renowned chef Jacques Pépin from his PBS show Essential Pépin.

Ingredients (serves 6)

• About 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 eggplant (1 1/4 pounds), trimmed but not peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 4 cups)
• 3 medium zucchini (about 1 1/4 pounds), trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 3 cups)
• 12 ounces onions (2–3) cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 pound green bell peppers (2–3), cored, seeded, and cut into 1-inch squares (about 3 cups)
• 4–5 ripe tomatoes, peeled, halved, seeded, and coarsely cubed (about 4 cups)
• 5–6 garlic cloves, crushed and very finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Direction:

1. Heat 1/4 cup of the oil in one or, better, two large skillets. First sauté the eggplant cubes until browned, about 8 minutes; remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a large heavy casserole. (The eggplant will absorb more oil while cooking than the other vegetables.) Then sauté the zucchini cubes until browned, about 8 minutes. Transfer to the casserole. Add about 1/4 cup more oil to the pan and sauté the onions and peppers together for about 6 minutes. Add them to the casserole.
2. Add the tomatoes, garlic, water, salt, and pepper to the casserole and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 1 hour.
3. Remove the cover, increase the heat to medium, and cook for another 20 minutes to reduce some of the liquid; stir once in a while to prevent scorching. Let the ratatouille rest for at least 30 minutes before serving.

If you want to reduce your cooking time “you can put all the cubed vegetables into a casserole and top with the seasonings and water; cooked this way, the dish is much less time-consuming to prepare. Ratatouille is excellent reheated, and it is superb cold as an hors d’oeuvre topped with small black olives and olive oil.” This means you can make it on the weekend, put it in a container in the refrigerator and reheat during the week.

If you haven’t already, we encourage you to visit the Meatless Monday website and join us in taking the Meatless Monday pledge today. Spread the word at home and at work to promote CSR business initiatives and make your green call centre, office, factory, shop, restaurant or salon even greener.

Bon appétit!

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.