Chickpea Ratatouille

Yeah, I'm BACK! Last week I was wiped out after finishing the manuscript, and had to catch up on so much with the kids and home. Still do, but at least I'm more even-paced and have a bit of a breather. So, posts will be more regular now - until time comes to do all the food photography for Eat, Drink and Be Vegan.

So, let's get to it. First, the winners of the contest... Veg-A-Nut and bbElf (a.k.a. panda). Congrats guys!! E-mail me asap with your mailing address, and which cookbook you'd like.

Next, for a long time I've wanted to post my Chickpea Ratatouille from Vive. It is one of my all-time favorite dishes, though I haven't made it much with all the recipe testing I've been doing. But, a couple of weeks ago I had a ratatouille hankering!

Why do I love it so:
1) Tastes FABULOUS!
2) Though it has a long-ish cook time, prep time/work is minimal.
3) Very healthy, tastes great eating it, and feels good after eating it.
4) Usually a lil' leftovers that can be quickly reheated or tucked into tortillas for a burrito-style meal.

Once you've prepped the ingredients, you toss them all into a big casserole dish, like so:

Then, into the oven for about an hour (stirring once through cooking), then it's ready to serve with quinoa, rice, pasta, flatbreads, or whatever you like. The flavors are abundant and complex without much fuss. This dish is quite low-fat. There is just 2 tbsp of oil in the entire dish, and this can be reduced to 1 or even none if you prefer.

I sometimes mince the garlic with my chef's knife, but this time I used my handy-dandy kitchen rasp. What a marvelous tool this is. Inexpensive, and goes from grating garlic to chocolate to citrus zest (um, not all at the same time!) Get one of these tools for yourself, you won't regret the purchase.


I had some mini-bell peppers on hand so I used the red and orange ones instead of a regular red pepper. I like these little guys, and I've picked them up on special a couple of time. The outer skin is thinner than some bell peppers, and they're cute! See how miniature they are next to this clove of garlic.

There you have it. A simple, ultra-healthy vegan dish. Beans are good for you, and so are the other seasonings and ingredients in this dish. Make it. You'll love it!

Last word: Needed a 'blog makeover'. I like my new look! You will notice that the Google Ads are now at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, the 'click to give' campaign has not been as successful as I had hoped. You can continue to click over the next few days, but then I will be removing the ad since it is not generating enough clicks to keep blabbering on about it. Whatever we have earned before I remove the ad, I will match that amount to donate to Project Hands. Thanks to those of you that have been clicking all along...