June 14: Ratatouille Salad with Quinoa

We had gotten some yummy looking zucchini in the produce basket, and thought we'd make a delicious vegetable ratatouille salad for dinner. We decided to add some chickpeas to liven it up, and made some quinoa to go underneath the salad. 

I got started trimming and cubing the eggplant.
 

See the bright green book in the background? It's become my go-to. You could play, "Find Mark Bittman's book in Christine's blog photos!" if you're really bored.

Add two tablespoons of oil, warmed to medium heat. Once the pan is hot, toss the eggplant into the pan, add salt, pepper and cook for about 10 minutes, until the eggplant is soft. 

I got to work getting the other ingredients prepped while the eggplant was cooking, and tossed some quick cooking quinoa on the stove (no exciting photos of that move).

Medium zucchini, small onion and medium tomato: CHOPPED.

Take out the eggplant and let it dry on some paper towels. 

Softened and seasoned.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and then add in the zucchini. Cook for about 2 minutes, then add in the onion and garlic. Cook this for another minute or two, then add in the chopped tomatoes and thyme (I also added a can of drained, rinsed chickpeas here). Cook everything down for just another minute, then pull off the heat.  Mix in lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Before mixing in the eggplant. So colorful!

Add the cubed eggplant, the vegetable mixture and the pan juices/dressing into one big bowl and mix thoroughly.

Warm, vegetable-y goodness.

The recipe says to let it cool to room temperature. I don't think we let it get that cold. Paul was busy working on taking the broken tv off the tv mount while this was going on (I was supervising, obviously), so we probably let it sit for about 10 minutes. Here is the salad on top of a bed of quinoa.

I'll need to have some ice cream to balance all these vegetables out.

This recipe was really easy to make, and very tasty. I'm sure you can make it with lots of different sides -- rice, pasta, a bed of spinach, etc. You could also top it with some feta or Parmesan. I imagine it's really good alongside some fish or meat as well, especially one that incorporates Mediterranean flavors. I liked that the vegetables still had some bite to them -- that they didn't fall apart or get too mushy while you were cooking them. 

I may have to make this one more time before all the summer vegetables are gone! Who can resist summer tomatoes and squash? Happy eating!