This gut friendly ratatouille is probably one of the most fun dishes I’ve made! It is packed with flavor and is so vibrant and beautiful! I found this recipe online and made a few tweaks to make it easy on the gut, I served it over some polenta, but it would also be amazing on its own or on top of some noodles.
I have a sensitivity to onions, so I subbed scallions in the sauce instead of a yellow onion, but if scallions bother your stomach you can omit them. I also used garlic in the sauce, but for those with a garlic sensitivity you can omit it and use garlic infused olive oil instead of regular olive oil to get that good garlic flavor!
Ingredients
For Tomato Sauce
2 tbsps olive oil
4 fresh garlic cloves, minced (if garlic upsets your gut, sub garlic infused olive oil instead of normal olive oil above^)
4 scallions, diced
1 large bell pepper, diced
1 (14 oz) jar crushed tomatoes with juice
1 bay leaf
Salt & Pepper to taste
For Vegetables
2 medium Japanese eggplants
2 medium yellow squash
2 medium zucchini
6 roma tomatoes
For Vinaigrette
2 tbsps olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Chopped fresh herbs–– I used basil and oregano
Pinch of salt & pepper
Instructions
Start with the tomato sauce, heat some oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add in the diced scallions and garlic (if using) and sauté until caramelized. Add in the diced bell pepper, crushed tomatoes, and bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low heat until liquid is cooked off and sauce has slightly thickened, about 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the sauce is done cooking, discard the bay leaf. While the tomato sauce is cooking, preheat the oven to 300 F and start prepping the vegetables.
Wash the eggplant, squash, zucchini, and tomatoes and start thinly slicing them into circle shapes.
Once the sauce is done, pour it into an 8x10 rectangle baking dish and smoothly cover the bottom of the dish. Start stacking your veggies in an alternating pattern, or anyway you like vertically on top of the sauce. Cover the dish with parchment paper or foil and bake at 300 degrees F for 2 hours. Once it’s finished baking, remove the foil or paper from the dish and switch to the broiler. Broil until the top is golden brown–– I broiled mine for about 7 minutes.
While the ratatouille is baking prepare the vinaigrette. You can add all the vinaigrette ingredients in a jar and shake, or mix in a small bowl. Drizzle on top of the ratatouille when it’s finished and enjoy!
XO, Sarah