Ratatouille and doorstep bread

Monday nights are great for this reason: at no point in the week will you ever be further away from a Monday morning. So grab some friends and make some dinner. This recipe is inspired by @Vegan's tweet on Sunday evening, suggesting that vegetarians try going vegan for #meatlessmonday. A simple, hearty ratatouille is a great place to start, chock full of flavour and low maintenance enough for a week night.

All the vegetables pictured above came from my Growing Communities vegetable bag this week, so they are all in season and taste amazing. Aubergine, courgette and chopped tomatoes are usually a good place to start, and after that, just stick in whatever takes your fancy (in my case, broad beans).

Serves 4, or two people for dinner and lunch the next day

Ingredients

1 courgette, chopped into 1-2 cm thick chunks

2 aubergine, chopped into 1-2 cm think chunks

3 carrots, roughly chopped

2 large handfuls of small potatoes- I like to leave them whole after peeling

1 onion or 2 large spring onions, diced

Anything extra that takes your fancy, such as broad beans, peas, a red pepper, red onion. 

2 cartons of chopped tomatoes

4 garlic cloves, sliced thinly

400ml vegan vegetable stock

2 sprigs of rosemary

Seasoning

150ml vegetable/sunflower oil

Heating 100ml of oil in a large saucepan and add the chopped onions and garlic. Allow these to heat through, before adding the potatoes and carrots. Cover in the oil and onions and garlic. Boil the kettle to make your vegetable stock. Add the rest of your chosen vegetables, pour in the stock and add the rosemary. Stir so it's all combined- the water doesn't need to cover the vegetables but just help cook them a little and take on some flavour from the stock. Season and leave to simmer for 15 minutes.

Once the water has reduced, add the tomatoes and turn up the heat a little so it simmers on high. Carry on seasoning and tasting as the ratatouille begins to reduce and the vegetables cook the whole way through. I chose to take the rosemary out about 10 minutes before the end of cooking so as not to overpower the other flavours- so be sure to season, add extra oil, or leave the rosemary in all to your own taste. Once the potatoes are cooked the whole way through, you're ready to serve. 

Just add thickly sliced brown bread and your #meatlessmonday is made!