Today I made another favorite dish of mine in the summer, for using all these veggies - ratatouille soup! With all the vegetables in this dish, only one - the bell pepper - didn't come from the garden! The original recipe had zucchini, but I never grow that, so I double the eggplant, but this time I used a little of one of those bottle gourds I had leftover from another dish. And in this double recipe I used up 4 lbs of the ripest tomatoes I had in there. This was a one dish meal, unless you count the Vitamix it was blended in.
I started it in the Instant Pot, with a chopped up onion in a little olive oil, on Sauté medium, and while that was cooking, I cut up the other ingredients, and added the garlic, cooked briefly, then added the bell pepper. After cooking a few more minutes, I added the gourd and eggplant, and cooked about 5 minutes, then added some basil and thyme, along with about 4 lbs of tomatoes, and 3½ c water, plus some vegetable stock paste (I forget the brand I use of that) - the original recipe just had 2 c of chicken stock, which seems like a waste, to me. I tasted for salt - didn't need a lot, after that paste, and set it to cook for 14 minutes, and let it release naturally. Then I used the immersion blender, only to totally mix it up, so I could blend it in the Vitamix, first weighing the soup in the IP container (which weighs 28.2 oz), and figured that 3 batches would be best to do, which was just over 39 oz each. And I blended them on medium, getting that vortex in the liquid, and slowly added through the hole in the lid a quarter tsp of xanthan gum, then increased the speed to maximum, blending about 30 sec, before pouring into the bowl, and blending the other two batches. It was almost too much for that 4 qt bowl, so I had a large bowl, to start with.
Eggplant and bottle gourd for the ratatouille soup. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Ratatouille soup, starting in the Instant Pot, hidden by the steam, ready to add the gourd and eggplant. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
4 lbs of tomatoes, added to the IP, along with herbs, salt, and pepper, to pressure cook 14 minutes. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Ratatouille soup, blended with the immersion blender - not quite smooth enough, but makes it smooth enough to divide it up, to put into the Vitamix. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Finished ratatouille soup, blended in the Vitamix in 3 portions, with some xanthan gum, for a slight thickening. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Finished ratatouille soup, with a little more basil, and some croutons, served hot. Most of it I eat cold. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
