What is the first thing that you think about when you hear the word “ratatouille”? Well, if you like to watch cartoons, probably you’ve seen the world-famous cartoon with the same title. A cartoon where this beautiful dish is prepared. Or, if you have never heard of the cartoon, maybe you simply know that this dish comes from France. No matter how informed you are about Ratatouille, it’s useful to know one thing! – Even though this easy vegan Ratatouille requires simple ingredients, its visual appearance and flavor give impression of an exquisite meal.
Different ways how to make Ratatouille
On the Internet you can find many different ways how people make Ratatouille. Originally, it is made as a vegetable stew. It means, without cutting the vegetables in thin slices to create the beautiful spiral pattern as it started to be done recently. Sometimes people tend to change also some ingredients of the Ratatouille. For example, some make Ratatouille with red bell peppers instead of tomatoes. Some others use potatoes instead of yellow squash etc. This time also I made this change. Instead of yellow squash I used potatoes, simply because it’s almost impossible to find the yellow squash in Italy in a regular supermarket. But if you have the chance, feel free to use yellow squash instead of potatoes to make your Ratatouille.
How to enjoy the easy vegan Ratatouille
In this Ratatouille recipe as the main vegetables I used eggplant (aubergine), zucchini, potatoes and tomatoes. But if you wish to use other vegetables, feel free to experiment with this recipe. Just remember that the precondition to create the beautiful pattern of this dish is to use vegetables in different colors. Ratatouille is a perfect side dish for rice or buckwheat. Or even for burgers, like my Eggplant and sundried tomato vegan burgers, since the eggplant you’ll need in any case to. Ratatouille can be used also as a main dish with a slice of fresh bread. Dip the bread in the delicious cooking liquid, which consists of tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, garlic, basil and the juices from all the cooked vegetables.
Cooking time and casserole
Even though the ingredients are not naturally very hard, it takes some time to cook Ratatouille. Originally it was cooked for several hours. That’s because the vegetables needed to be slowly steamed. But don’t worry – the cooking time for this easy vegan Ratatouille balances between 1 hour and 1 hour and a half. All the waiting until this delicious vegetable dish gets ready is definitely worth it. You will be surprised by the rich flavor that this dish has. Use it also to demonstrate your cooking skills to your friends and family. Because an accurately made Ratatouille really looks like a piece of art. Don’t worry if you don’t have a round casserole to create the spiral pattern. You can also use a rectangular casserole dish and arrange the vegetable slices in lines.
To speed up the preparation process of this dish, feel free to use a vegetable slicer. Or, if you don’t have one, simply cut the vegetables in equally thin slices with a knife. It will just take a bit longer. But for sure the amount of love that you’ll put in this dish during the preparation process will be bigger. Though probably not as big as Specky’s sleepiness, because in that he’s a champion! He’s such a sleepyhead that he can fall asleep even while eating! Which he actually did when I was preparing the Ratatouille. He decided to take a nap while eating his celery!
It’s up to you to follow the recipe of my easy vegan Ratatouille step by step or choose to replace some of the vegetables. In any case I’m more than sure that your Ratatouille will be:
-
beautiful
- juicy
- healthy
- flavorful
- nutritious
- easy to make
- vegan
- deliciously aromatic
- low-fat
- easy to digest
- and simply yummy!
Let me know, if you try this recipe! Leave a comment or even more – make Specky happy! Snap a picture of your masterpiece and post it on Instagram or Facebook by tagging @bunnymommycooks. And feel free to let your animal family members join in the picture!
| Prep Time | 30 min |
| Cook Time | 1 h* (check notes) |
| Servings |
** (check notes)
|
- 1 medium size onion (~150 g)
- 8 cloves of garlic (3 for the sauce layer and 5 for the topping)
- 1 medium size bell pepper (~230 g)
- 500 ml of tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
- 20 fresh basil leaves (10 for the sauce layer and 10 for the topping)
- 6 small tomatoes*** (check notes) (~600 g; preferably oblong in shape)
- 2 small eggplants*** (check notes) (~400 g; preferably long and thin)
- 1 big zucchini*** (check notes) (~370 g)
- 4 medium size potatoes*** (check notes) (~550 g; potatoes can be replaced with 1 big and long yellow squash)
- 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (2 for the sauce layer and 4 for the topping)
- salt & pepper
Ingredients
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- cut out a circle/rectangle form from parchment paper in the size of the chosen casserole, in which the Ratatouille will be cooked, and put it aside;
- cut the onion and part of the garlic cloves in small pieces and cook in oil until golden. Cut bell pepper in small pieces and add it to the cooked onions and garlic together with tomato sauce (or crushed tomatoes) and part of the basil leaves (chopped) and bring everything to boil. Once the sauce starts to boil, remove it from the heat, pour it into the casserole and set aside;
- cut potatoes, eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes in equally thin slices. Then put the slices in casserole by dipping the lower part of every slice in the sauce that was prepared before. Put the slices in the casserole in a repetitive order (zucchini – tomato – eggplant – potato) by creating a spiral pattern, if you use a round casserole, or arrange them in lines, if you use a rectangular casserole;
- prepare the topping by mixing together in a small bowl the rest of the basil leaves (chopped), the rest of the garlic cloves (crushed with a garlic press) and the rest of the olive oil. Then pour the mixture over the vegetables, sprinkle over some salt and pepper and cover everything with the piece of parchment paper that you cut out in the beginning;
- place the casserole in the middle compartment of a preheated oven and cook for 1 hour in 190°C/375°F. After 1 hour check with a fork if the potatoes and the skin of the eggplant are soft. If yes, the Ratatouille is ready, if not – continue to cook it for some extra minutes.
* if instead of potatoes you use yellow squash, be aware that you might need to reduce the cooking time
** the diameter of the casserole used is 28 cm
*** when choosing the vegetables, make sure that the diameter of them is more or less the same for all the vegetables
