Baked Quinoa Ratatouille

"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."
 
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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 12 ounces diced tomatoes (with the liquid, don't drain)
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 12 teaspoon dried oregano (I used powdered because that's what I had)
  • 12 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 12 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.)
  • 34 cup mozzarella cheese
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directions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  • Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
  • Add garlic and onion.
  • Saute until softened, about 5 minutes. (the onion starts to turn clear).
  • Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, basil, thyme and parsley. Continue to cook for 1-2 minutes.
  • Remove from heat.
  • Layer half of the tomato and onion mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish (I sprayed mine with Pam first).
  • Top with ALL of the uncooked vegetables.
  • Add the remaining tomato and onion mixture and spread over the top.
  • Spread the cooked Quinoa on top, then sprinkle with cheese.
  • Cover with foil and bake for 40-45 minutes.
  • Remove foil for the last 5 minutes of cooking.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Husband, four kids, multiple extra-curricular activities, never enough hours in a day.
 
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