Easy Ratatouille Recipe | Healthy, Budget-Friendly - Elavegan (2024)

FAQs

What is a substitute for eggplant in ratatouille? ›

I substituted portabella mushrooms for eggplant, which was not only delicious, but also shaved about 30 minutes off the cooking time. I substituted jalapenos for bell pepper just for fun. At the end, I tried something a friend from Toulouse taught me: add eggs at the end and poach them lightly in the ratatouille.

If you want to make ratatouille, all you need is one eggplant, one zucchini, two tomatoes, and one onion. If you thought it couldn't get any better, it should cost you less than $5 for all your ingredients.

Ratatouille takes some time to make, and tastes better the next day, so plan ahead. The upside is that it's a perfect make-ahead dish for a party.

Ratatouille is usually eaten as an appetiser or side dish, however you can also eat it as a main meal. In France, ratatouille is usually eaten with fish, quiche, or souffle.

Overcrowding the pan.

Follow this tip: Give your eggplant room to breathe. When cooking eggplant in the oven, or in whichever vessel you choose, spread it in a single layer so that it has space to brown and get nice and crisp on the exterior, while the inside cooks up to be soft and tender.

Ratatouille is traditionally made with tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, onions, and eggplant when they are at the peak of their season at the same time. Garlic, thyme, and basil are often added to the mix as well.

Ratatouille requires ripe vegetables, a liberal hand with the olive oil, and patience: only long, slow cooking will give you the creamy soft vegetables, and intense, almost jammy sauce that sings of the sun. Anything else is just plain vegetable stew.

A classic ratatouille includes eggplant (aubergines), zucchini (courgettes), bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil and herbs.

Ratatouille is packed with dietary fiber, potassium, vitamins A, C and K, folate and much more. With so many vegetables included, you're bound to meet the recommended daily amount of veggies your body needs.

Serve Ratatouille as a Side Dish to Meats

Ratatouille goes well with all kinds of grilled meats—I love it with flank steak, lamb, and veal, especially. A gourmet burger, served open face. Yes. A good steaky fish.

How to cut onions for ratatouille? ›

Every rule has exceptions: the onion must be cut into slices, in this way it will be recognizable in the dish and it will not be lost in the rest of the ingredients; instead, the tomatoes must be cut in half and, if they are very small, they must be cooked after having pricked them with a toothpick.

ˌrä-ˌtä-, -ˈtü-ē : a seasoned stew made of eggplant, tomatoes, green peppers, squash, and sometimes meat.

The teeming summer gardens of Mediterranean France are the inspiration for and source of ratatouille, a dish whose name is taken from two related words: ratouiller, meaning to agitate or stir a liquid, and tatouiller, meaning to beat (as in the drumbeat called the tattoo) or to shake.

Its stunning animation of the Parisian skyline and comedic relief from the main character, Linguine, provide the film with a sort of indescribable witty charm. The production of the film adds to why “Ratatouille” is the best Pixar movie ever.

Eggplant has a flavor similar to summer squash or zucchini: tender, mild, and sweet with a slight vegetal bitterness. Eggplant will absorb the flavor of whatever it's cooked with. Its texture is firm and spongy when raw, and meltingly tender when cooked (especially fried, smoked, or braised).

Nightshade is a family of plants that includes tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, and peppers. Tobacco is also in the nightshade family.

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.; 2n = 24), commonly known as brinjal, aubergine, or guinea squash, belongs to the Solanaceae family and is included under the genus Solanum, one of the largest genera covering more than 1550 species (Chen, 1997).