Ratatouille is one of my favorite summertime dishes – the richly layered stew of vegetables is a great way to take advantage of the abundant produce that’s available this time of year. It’s simple to make and incredibly versatile: toss it into pasta, serve it over soft polenta, stir into an omelet, or pile it onto a pita for an impromptu pizza.

Serving ratatouille in a crêpe is something I never would have thought of on my own – the whole concept of savory crêpes is pretty new to me – so you can thank Sara Moulton for this one.

Sara is going to be the keynote speaker at the Food and Wine Conference later this month and this week the #SundaySupper crew is sharing recipes inspired by hers. (I unfortunately can’t attend the conference and I have to admit that I’m a little jealous of my friends who will be there – Sara is one of the first chefs I remember watching on television and I love her straightforward, simple style of cooking.)

Instead of cooking the ratatouille on the stove, Sara came up with the idea of roasting the vegetables. Roasting them concentrates their flavor and makes the ratatouille extra delicious. Plus, you get to add roasted garlic to it, which doesn’t even compare at all to regular old garlic. Although it only takes a few minutes of actual work, roasting the dish does mean that this take a little longer than normal to prepare. Luckily, it’s easy to split to work over two days by making the ratatouille one night and filling the crêpes the next.

If you don’t like goat cheese, try it with feta or mozzarella!

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Ratatouille Crêpes

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 45 minutes minutes

Servings 6 servings

Author Lauren Keating

Ingredients

• 1 medium eggplant stem end cut off
• 2 medium zucchini trimmed
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 large plum tomatoes quartered
• 1 large red bell pepper quartered
• 1 large onion quartered
• 1 head garlic
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
• ½ cup shredded fresh basil
• 4 ounces goat cheese chrevre, crumbled
• 6 prepared crêpes 9-inch

Instructions

• Cut the eggplant into 1-inch cubes and the zucchini into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Toss with 2 teaspoons salt and place in a large colander. Set a plate on top and place the colander inside a large bowl or in the sink. Set aside at room temperature and drain for 30 minutes. Transfer to a clean kitchen towel and gently squeeze out as much moisture as possible.
• Heat the oven to 450°F. Add the eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, bell pepper, and onion in a shallow roasting pan large enough to fit all of the vegetables in one flat layer. Cut a 1/4-inch slice off the root of the head of garlic and place the garlic in the center of a large square of foil. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the oil and season with salt and pepper. Bring up the corners of the foil and crimp to seal tightly. Drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil over the vegetables and add the thyme; season with salt and pepper and place in the oven with the wrapped garlic on the oven rack next to the roasting pan. Roast, stirring often, until the onions are browned around the edges and the peppers are crinkly, about 45 minutes.
• Transfer the roasted vegetables to a large bowl and cool. Unwrap the garlic and cool. Finely chop the vegetables; stir in the basil. Pull the garlic apart and squeeze the pulp from the individual cloves onto the vegetables; stir well. Crumble in the goat cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Spoon about 1/2 cup of ratatouille into each crepe. Serve at room temperate or place on a baking sheet and crisp in a 350°F oven for 30 minutes.

The other day, I was thinking about the way I used to eat. Back when I was in college and shortly after I graduated. Let’s just say it wasn’t very healthy or very delicious. Looking back, I think there was a period of time where I just completely forgot that I knew how to cook a decent meal. Plus, I couldn’t really be bothered. Like a lot of people, I had the misconception that cooking a real dinner out of real ingredients would be too expensive and take too much time. So we’d boil a box of pasta and mix it with a jar of sauce and some sausage. Or we’d try to be “healthy” and make a chicken stir-fry, but we would totally ruin it by using store-bought marinades that were loaded with sugar. For a special treat, we’d buy a box of zatarain’s mix and make jambalaya.

I don’t miss the other stuff at all, but I do kind of miss the jambalaya. And with Foodbuzz pledging to donate $25 to the Greater New Orleans Foundation (helping fishermen who were effected by the oil spill and their families) for every Gulf-Inspired post this weekend, it seemed like the perfect excuse to make it. Of course, I wasn’t going to resort to using a box – I know better than that now! (And a quick look at the back of the box confirmed my suspicions — 21% of your RDA of sodium? MSG? Sodium dioxide?? No thanks!) No, this jambalaya is 100% real food and 100% real flavor. Sure you have to spend a few minutes chopping vegetables, but other than that it really isn’t any more difficult or time consuming than the boxed stuff. And the final product is so much healthier and so much more delicious that there really isn’t any excuse to take “shortcuts”!

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Cajun Jambalaya with Okra, Andouille and Shrimp

Course Healthy One Pan Recipes

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 6 servings

Calories 244kcal

Author Lauren Keating

Ingredients

• ½ lb. shrimp cleaned with tails removed
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbs oregano dried
• 1 tsp thyme dried
• ¼ lb. Andouille sausage sliced into rounds (Chicken andouille works well if you can find it)
• ¼ cup chopped onion
• ¼ cup chopped green pepper
• 2 stalks celery chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 4 plum tomatoes chopped
• 3 cups fat-free chicken stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp Tabasco sauce plus more to taste
• 1 cup quick cooking brown rice
• 1 cup okra sliced into rounds
• 2 tsp fresh basil chopped
• salt and pepper

Instructions

• In a bowl, combine the shrimp, cayenne, oregano, and thyme. Toss to coat.
• Set a heavy pot over high heat and add the andouille. Cook for several minutes, until the andouille begins to brown and crisp on the outside edges. Add the onion, pepper, celery, and garlic. Cook 3-4 minutes to allow the vegetables to soften. Add the tomatoes, stock, bay leaves and Tabasco.
• Slowly stir in the rice. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Add the shrimp (along with any remaining seasonings from the bowl) and okra. Cook another 5-10 minutes, until the shrimp is cooked through and the rice is tender.
• Stir in the basil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with additional Tabasco so each diner can adjust the amount of spice to suit their taste.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 244kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 17g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 102mg | Sodium: 866mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 5g