Baked Quinoa Ratatouille

Submitted by Bizy_Mum

"Vegetables in a tomato sauce with Quinoa and Mozzarella cheese - easy and yummy. Recipe came from a grocery-store ad during our state's healthy-eating push. I'm putting it here so I don't lose it. What you should know about me and my family is that we do not normally do 'weird' or even 'healthy' food. I tried this recipe with *great* trepidation and expected only hubby and I would be willing to even taste it - and that we would throw it away. I still wanted to try it - I'm trying very hard to introduce a wider variety of vegegables and healthy grains into our diet. I've read so much about the nutritional benefits of Quinoa - which is actually a seed and therefore high in protein and low in carbohydrates - that I've been wanting to try it. We LOVED this recipe and will definitely eat it again and again. I had never ever cooked with eggplant before, and only ever used zucchini and yellow summer squash in grilled vegetables in the summer. I did not peel any of these vegetables and I did not 'sweat' the eggplant as it was not called for in the directions in the recipe. It felt like a very 'fancy' dish but it was easy to make and delicious. I hope you enjoy it."

 

• Ready In: 55mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Yields: 2 pans (varies)
• Serves: 4-8

ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced (I processed the garlic and onion in my food processor)
• 14 1⁄2 ounces diced tomatoes (with the liquid, don't drain)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried oregano (I used powdered because that's what I had)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1⁄2 teaspoon basil
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (I used dried because that's what I had)
• 1 large eggplant, cubed (I did not 'sweat' this, nor did I remove any skin)
• 1 green pepper, thinly sliced (I did not know what this meant, so I cut it in roughly square pieces like you would for stir-fry)
• 2 zucchini, sliced (do not peel)
• 1 summer squash, sliced (do not peel)
• 1 cup cooked quinoa (cooked according to packaged directions, I used pre-rinsed quinoa in a box from the grocery store.)
• 3⁄4 cup mozzarella cheese

directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
3. Add garlic and onion.
4. Saute until softened, about 5 minutes. (the onion starts to turn clear).
5. Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, basil, thyme and parsley. Continue to cook for 1-2 minutes.
6. Remove from heat.
7. Layer half of the tomato and onion mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish (I sprayed mine with Pam first).
8. Top with ALL of the uncooked vegetables.
9. Add the remaining tomato and onion mixture and spread over the top.
10. Spread the cooked Quinoa on top, then sprinkle with cheese.
11. Cover with foil and bake for 40-45 minutes.
12. Remove foil for the last 5 minutes of cooking.
13. When I made this, my vegetables must have been larger than the recipe-writer's, as by the time I chopped up all those veggies, I had too many for my pan and ended up making 2 batches. I had to make a second full batch of the sauce to make 2 pans, so you might want to adjust.
14. Also, the sauce seemed too scanty when I spread it in the pan, barely enough to very thinly 'cover' the vegetables, but there must be a lot of moisture in the vegetables because the sauce was a perfect proportion for us when it was cooked.
15. Lastly - I goofed, never having cooked Quinoa before. My box said 1 cup Quinoa to 2 cups water - the recipe said 1 cup cooked Quinoa - but really my Quinoa made 3 cups once it was cooked. Since I made 2 pans of this recipe, it worked out okay, but you might want to double-check your Quinoa directions and proportions.
16. One more thing - the recipe as written in the grocery store ad says 4 servings - we got probably closer to 8 to 10 servings of this. However, for my family, this would not be a 'main dish', but rather a yummy veggie 'side' to go with some type of meat because we're utter carnivores.
17. I hope you enjoy this as much as our family did! It has loads of good-for-you stuff in it, it looks pretty and colorful and tastes like a 'fancy' dish while being actually quite easy. It is also vegitarian and gluten-free, which is cool for those folks who need that stuff.