Roast vegetable ratatouille with preserved lemon and organic quinoa

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Remove the thyme leaves from the woody stalk, a bit of soft stalk is fine. Roughly chop.

Remove the core from the tomatoes and cut in half. Lay on a baking tray, sprinkle with salt, sugar and pepper. Drizzle over with olive oil.

Roast for about 15 minutes, until just starting to brown.

Cut the courgettes into 2 cm rounds.

Cut the mushrooms in quarters or halves depending on size.

Chop the eggplant into 3 cm cubes.

In a bowl, combine the eggplant, mushroom, and courgette with a little salt and oil, a crack of pepper and the chopped thyme.

Roast for 12 minutes, or until the mushrooms are golden and the courgette is soft.

While the vegetables are cooking bring a medium pot of water to the boil.

Cook quinoa and brown rice for 15 to 18 minutes, or until tender.

Once cooked strain through a fine sieve.

Peel and dice the carrot into 1 cm cubes.

Dice the onion.

Mince the garlic.

In a large pot on medium heat, cook the carrot and onion for a few minutes in a good amount of olive oil, then add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Add the tomato paste to the pot and give it a good stir, fry for 30 seconds.

If you haven’t already, remove the roast tomatoes from the oven, throw them into the pot, breaking them apart using a wooden spoon.

Once the tomatoes are sauce-like, add the roasted vegetables. Allow them to sit on a very low heat while you get it ready to serve.

Remove the basil leaves from the stalk, set aside a few leaves, then slice the rest.

Discard any seeds, from the preserved lemon and finely chop, you don’t want any big chunks as the flavour can be pretty full-on!

Stir the sliced basil and three quarters of the lemon through the ratatouille, taste, and add more if needed.

Serve ratatouille over quinoa and brown rice, rip over remaining basil and drizzle with the olive oil from the preserved lemons.