roasted chickpea ratatouille

I've been pretty absent/pretty busy/pretty neglectful lately about posting but I have been collecting photos and recipes!  Here on the last day of September 2014, I'll do a run on posting and share some of what I've been cooking.

For quite a while now, I've been roasting veggies instead of most other preparations, because the flavors intensify and I adore that crispy crunchy goodness. So this recipe didn't surprise me - well, except for the chickpeas part. Roasted chickpeas? Had to give it a try.

I'm not sure this really qualifies as a ratatouille, but here is the original recipe on Love and Lemons, where she used a few different vegetables than I did, as well as different vinegar, but the basics were almost the same. This blogger also cooked hers a bit longer than I did; I think I like a little more crunch to my goodness than she perhaps does.

I did not use eggplant nor did I serve mine on rice. Dillon has texted me earlier in the day, asking for alfredo, so I combined that request with this experiment and served these veggies over whole-wheat egg noodle alfredo. It. Was. Amazingly. Good.  I also roasted cabbage and, on a whim, fennel. It was the first time I'd roasted fennel, and I can tell you that it was my favorite part of the meal. I will be doing that again. Stevie adored the chickpeas, which I thought were a little too hard, so when we made this again a couple days later, I decreased the cooking time by 5 minutes after adding the vinegar.  I liked the chickpeas much better then.

Roasted Chickpea Ratatouille

1 fennel, cored and diced
2 roma tomatoes or 8 large cherry tomatoes, cut into wedges (roma) or halved (cherry)
2 or 3 medium yellow squash or zucchini, quartered lengthwise and then cut into 1.5 inch wedges
1/4 of a head of cabbage, chopped into large pieces
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
dried chili flakes (optional)
couple tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place all the vegetables and the chickpeas on a baking sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and chili flakes (if using), then toss gently to coat. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and toss gently with spatula, then bake for 5 more minutes. Serve hot over rice, noodles, or just eat as a side without a starch.