If you are looking for a veggie packed meal, with lots of uses, then give this Easy Ratatouille recipe a try. A classic French dish that is bursting with flavour, it's a simple one pot vegetarian dinner that is great for feeding a crowd, or freezing leftovers.
This is healthy comfort food at its finest. Chunky vegetables in a rich tomato sauce, with plenty of herbs. Serve it with chunks of crusty French bread or on top of pasta or rice. This is a nutrient dense meal, with plenty of flavour. Keep it vegan, or add cheese on top.
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Why you will love it
- One pot recipe
- Veggie packed
- Less than 250 calories per portion
- Vegan
- Lots of different ways to serve it
Ingredients needed
- Bell peppers - We used red and yellow, for a nice pop of bright colour and because they are sweet. However, green and orange will work too.
- Aubergine (eggplant) - Look for aubergines with smooth, shiny skin that are uniform in colour and heavy for their size.
- Onion - We used red onion in this recipe, however brown onion or even shallots will work.
- Courgette (zucchini) - Look for a vibrant and rich colour courgette. Don't choose one that is too big, as they tend to be watery and flavourless.
- Carrot - We find this is a cheap way to bulk the dish out. They do still have a bit of crunch to them, as they don't cook as quickly as the other vegetables.
- Fresh tomatoes - Although tinned tomatoes make up most of the tomatoes in this dish, we like to add some fresh for some extra flavour.
- Tinned tomatoes - Try to use the best quality tomatoes you can, as you really will be able to taste the difference. Cheap tinned tomatoes tend to be really water.
- Lemon - This adds lots of freshness to the dish.
- Basil and oregano - An easy way to add lots of flavour. You could use dried oregano too.
- Garlic - Fresh is always best, however you can use a teaspoon of lazy chopped garlic from a jar if you prefer.
How to make ratatouille - Step by step
One: Put the oil in a pan and add all the vegetables and gently cook for 5 minutes.
Two: Add the rest of the ingredients and put a lid on the pot and simmer for 15 minutes.
What is ratatouille?
Ratatouille is a traditional dish from Provence, France. It’s a delicious stew of vegetables like courgette, aubergine, tomatoes, and peppers. There are lots of ways to adapt it, but those are the vegetables that you would traditionally find in it.
The sauce is made of canned tomatoes, a little lemon juice and plenty of garlic and herbs. You want to make sure that you use a really good quality can of tomatoes, as you will honestly taste the difference. Cheaper cans can be really watery. You could use fresh tomatoes and grate them or finely chop them.
Traditionally, all of the vegetables would be cooked individually in olive oil (so that they are all cooked properly) and then combined together and simmered in the sauce. However, we love that this ratatouille recipe can all be done in one pot. You could also roast all the vegetables and then finish them in the sauce.
What vegetables to add
There really is no rule when it comes to making ratatouille, apart from that it should have a tomato base, so that means that whatever vegetables you have, put them in and it will taste great. It is also all cooked in one pot, so throw everything in, season it, put a lid on it and simmer it until it is ready.
What to serve it with
We had ours with just some crusty French bread, but it also goes really well with some pasta and topped with feta. But there is leftovers and that will be going on a baked potato tomorrow. It would be good on rice too. Just put it on everything - it has so many uses!
FAQs
Cool to room temperature, and then divide among shallow, airtight containers. You can keep it this way in the fridge for up to a week or it will be good in the freezer for up to three months.
To reheat the ratatouille, make sure that it has fully defrosted and then heat through in a pan. If the vegetables have gone a little mushy from being frozen, you could always blend everything up and use it as a pasta sauce with a splash of balsamic and a generous amount of shaved Parmesan.
More vegan recipes
If you’ve tried this ratatouille recipe, let us know how you got on in the comments below.
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Recipe
Ratatouille
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Olive oil
- 0.5 Yellow bell pepper - diced
- 0.5 Red bell pepper - diced
- 1 Aubergine (eggplant) - small; diced
- 1 Red onion - cut in the eights
- 1 Courgette (zucchini) - diced
- 2 Tomatoes - quartered
- 1 Carrot - peeled and diced
- 400 g (14 oz) Plum tomatoes - canned
- 0.5 Lemon - (juice only)
- 4 tablespoon Fresh basil - chopped
- 1 tablespoon Dried oregano
- 2 Garlic clove - crushed
- 1 pinch Sea salt and black pepper
Instructions
- Put the oil in a pan and add all the vegetables and gently cook for 5 minutes.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and put a lid on the pot and simmer for 15 minutes.
Notes
- Add some protein by serving a runny poached egg on top.
- You can use any vegetables you have, but chunky ones work best.
- This is delicious served with crusty French bread. However leftovers are also good on pasta, rice or a baked potato.
- If you want to have a caramelised flavour to the vegetables, then roast them all together, and then finish them off in the sauce on the hob (stove top).
Deanna
This looks SO delicious, it would be so good to make the night before and take to work for my lunch! At 137 calories you can't go wrong at all!!!
Deb
Excellent. Roasted the veggies at 400 for 30 minutes, then finished on stovetop. Added a ton of lovely flavor.