Ragout

One of the difficulties I have encountered so far is cooking. I love to cook. But cooking healthy is not the way I love to cook. I like to use butter, cream, cheese, cream cheese or bacon to most everything I cook. Seriously, most everything I ever cooked before had at least one of these components; my good ole Loaded Smashed Potatoes had them all! And I've already told you I've been a meat and potatoes girl for 43 years.

I like cooked vegetables WAY more than I like them raw. However, cooking down some fresh green beans in bacon, bacon grease and onion (or butter, onion and chicken broth) doesn't seem to be on Abby's list of approved foods. Nickey has always said that I cook vegetables in a way to make them taste like something else (and bacon and/or butter typically play a huge part in that).

Cooking vegetables in a healthy way, oh that's so foreign! However, I did come up with a ragout last week that was so good, I made it two nights in a row! Some of you may be wondering what a ragout is. A ragout is basically a main dish stew that's simmered for a long period of time, with or without meat and with a wide variety of vegetables. Mine, of course, didn't include meat. Ragout is pronounced like Ragu, the brand of jarred spaghetti sauce we've all had at one time or another.

I put some Roma tomatoes, red peppers and garlic in the oven to roast for a while. While that was going on, I thinly sliced a Vidalia onion and put it in a pot to start sauteeing in just a little bit of olive oil. I don't like carrots, but I had some on hand and knew I could run them through my food processor to give the ragout some extra flavor, texture and substance without big chunks of carrot, but still get those nutrients in there. I also added some mushrooms and green pepper to the carrot/onion mixture and let it all hang out in the pot, just letting all the flavors get to know each other and be friends. When the veggies in the oven were roasted, I put the tomatoes into the food processor, then dumped that into my pot. I peeled the skin off the red peppers and garlic, processed that, also and threw that into the pot as well. I let it all simmer for a while, just loving the smell that was wafting through my kitchen.

The first night, I cut thick slices of eggplant, sauteed them just for a bit then topped them with the ragout.  The next night, I made a bigger batch (after a trip to Kroger to buy more tomatoes... it's amazing how much veggies shrink down when they cook!). That night, I had taken a pound of ground turkey and made four patties and "fried" them in a dry non-stick skillet, then topped them with the ragout. It was almost kind of a like an adult Sloppy Joe (without the bread, of course).

I was proud of myself... I was enjoying cooking healthy... and it was delicious!