Ratatouille is a traditional french provencal stewed vegetable dish. It was made famous in the Pixar movie with the same name as the dish. ‘Touille’ in french essentially means tossed food.
I stumbled upon my version of ‘Ratatouille’ when I first prepared my baby daughter’s food. It was at a time when I was pondering on how I can eat more healthily with minimum fuss. While raw vegetables may sound ideal, it is definitely not something that I can stomach day in day out.
My daughter’s daily meal consists of – tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, etc. An assortment of vegetables steamed, tossed up and then mixed with her brown rice porridge. No flavoring (i.e. sugar, salt, soy sauce, etc).
It never occur to me to sample it (at the back of my head I know it is bland!) until I have to finish some as I have cooked too much for her. I must say that I am taken to its ‘original’ sweetness (tomatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin), textured (broccoli and corn) and the refreshing (whatever leafy vegetables I have used) taste.
I have used an combination of ingredients and have found the following, for 3 days worth of lunch, that appeal to me most:
- 2 x large tomatoes, 3 x sweet potatoes, 200g spinach, 200g eggplant (can be any vegetables that you like), 300g pumpkin, 100g corns (all quantity is dependent on the size of your stomach, or should I say your appetite)
Directions:
- Remove the skins of the pumpkin & sweet potatoes
- Steam the pumpkin & sweet potatoes for 25-min, the rest of the vegetables for 15-min
- Tossed all into a bowl, and mashed it up
- Put it in a freezer with a cling wrap to keep it’s freshness (never keep more than 3 days. Where possible, we should always prepare it fresh everyday, as nutrients are loss over days when we did not consume it)
- Warm up the amount that you want to eat either by mirco-wave or oven toasting it
- Tossed it with extra virgin olive oil, flax seeds (for the Omega 3 Fatty acids) and nuts before you chomp them down
- OK. For starter, you may flavor it with some salt/soy sauce and sesame oil
Have fun creating your own version of ‘Ratatouille’, and attempt to mixed and match until you find a combo that suits your taste buds without any flavoring. Whatever combo you come up with, you will get your carbohydrates (potatoes), vitamins & minerals (vegetables), proteins (nuts), fatty acids (flax seeds), monounsaturated fats (olive oil).
That’s what we call simply natural – easy to prepare, injest and digest.
Just like Yoga.
Namaste.
