The crock pot adventure continues.

Last week, I tried Smoked Sausage and Bean Stew from the Crockpot 365 blog. I found it to be quite delicious even though I substituted veggie broth. The recipe was filled with yummy veggies and I didn’t have to stand over the stove or heat up the oven to prepare supper. The recipe made just enough for a good hearty meal with leftovers for lunch the following day.

Last night, I tried another crock pot veggie adventure – ratatouille. My youngest has been nagging me since that movie came out to make ratatouille. I had my doubts about whether he would eat it but a cold with its accompanying sort throat convinced me I wanted comfort food. I have cooked ratatouille the old-fashioned way, but I was curious about how it would work in a crock pot.

After searching diligently for a recipe, I settled on this one. I tinkered with the recipe a little. I used two medium-sized eggplants instead of one large, I sweated the eggplant with salt before adding it to the cooker so it wouldn’t be bitter, I increased the garlic to be closer to the traditional recipes, I used tomato paste instead of fresh tomatoes and I substituted yellow squash for half of the zucchini. I also cooked mine on High for the first hour and stirred the concoction mid-way. The results were as expected, everybody but the kid that has been pestering me to make ratatouille for years liked it. Mr H ate three servings. And with all those veggies and olive oil, it has to be good for you. It was exactly what my cold-infected body wanted. The recipe made enough for a hearty meal and enough leftovers for lunch, though SmallFry will probably be happier with a sandwich. If I make this recipe again, I would probably put the herbs and spices between the two layers instead of on top.

Today, I am going for something SmallFry will eat so the crock pot is already working with a chicken for roasting. To this, I will add his favorite veggies so there will be no tears at the table. I will wait until tomorrow to spring a new recipe on him. 🙂