My friend, Peggy, is part of a CSA (community-shared-agriculture) at her workplace. Since she went on vacation this week, she arranged for me to pick up her share of vegetables and fruit. I’ve never gotten so many different types of vegetables at once before! There must’ve been at least four pounds each of squash, eggplant, and tomatoes. As I was thinking of what to make that would require using most of the vegetables, one dish came to mind – ratatouille! (You know you want to say it in a French accent. Go ahead, no one’s listening. ;))

There are many debates over the proper way to make a traditional ratatouille, ranging from layering and baking the vegetables in a casserole dish to simply sauteing the vegetables. My version is definitely not a “traditional” ratatouille, but rather a quick and easy way to achieve most of the flavors in a traditional ratatouille. It’s also a great way to use up the vegetables in your refrigerator, such as squash, eggplant, zucchini, onions, carrots, peppers, etc. Obviously, traditional ratatouille doesn’t include meat, but I added chicken for the extra protein to keep me full longer. I chose to use chicken thighs because I like the taste better and it’s extremely inexpensive; however, you could also use chicken breasts instead.

You could serve this dish by itself (which I do on my low-carb nights), or with rice, quinoa, couscous or slices of fresh baguette to soak up all the nice juices! I hope you give my chicken ratatouille a try sometime. It’s such a nice homey meal to make for yourself and those you love most :). Continue reading →