Slow Cooker Ratatouille with Polenta

This Sluggish Cooker Ratatouille is the ultimate dish for those people times when you have tons of vegetables lying close to the property and no strategy what to do with them. Designed with eggplant, zucchini, yellow summer squash, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes, this gradual cooker evening meal is the final vegetarian comfort food.

All you have to do is chop up your vegetables and toss them into a sluggish cooker. Sit back and permit the gradual cooker do its issue. Aren’t these the very best types of recipes? Right after 4 several hours, pop some polenta into the oven, and just like that – evening meal perfection!

This straightforward ratatouille is amazing as a aspect dish or a primary study course. It also helps make a delicious sauce, dip, or unfold. It is similar to Caponata or Pepperonata in that it can be utilized in several distinctive means.

For the reason that ratatouille retailers and reheats so perfectly, it serves as a great make-in advance meal. I endorse doubling the recipe and saving the leftovers to serve about a bowl of pasta or grains for lunch the future day. It is even far better the subsequent day!

Looking for a additional traditional ratatouille? Check out this baked model.

What is Ratatouille?

Ratatouille is a traditional French stew that is typically made with conclude-of-summer season generate like eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers, and tomatoes. It is thought to be from the region of Provence.

In the classic planning of Ratatouille stew, all of the greens are cooked separately in olive oil and then blended. This version simplifies almost everything by owning the veggies all cook dinner together in the sluggish cooker. The resulting dish is tasty but it won’t have some of the common caramelization you would come across in the basic model.

Vital Ingredients

To make this tasty recipe, you will want the next components:

• Polenta: Polenta is produced from corn and has a similar texture to grits. In this recipe, we bake it into crispy rounds for the excellent enhance to ratatouille. Swap in cooked grains, creamy polenta, pasta, or crust bread if you like.
• Zucchini: Zucchini is a large-fiber, small-calorie veggie that is wealthy in natural vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, and other plant compounds.
• Eggplant: Eggplant is an absolute necessity when it comes to ratatouille. It is a excellent resource of important natural vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants.
• Summertime squash: This is a kind of yellow squash that is harvested when immature, or when the rind is continue to edible and tender. It is packed with necessary nutritional vitamins and nutrition, and provides delectable flavor to the dish.
• Bell peppers: For a genuinely wonderful pop of shade, I adore to use a combination of crimson and eco-friendly bell peppers. Experience cost-free to use any coloration of bell peppers you favor.
• Italian seasoning: You can use a shop-purchased Italian seasoning mix or make your own from scratch with oregano, basil, thyme, and rosemary.

Recipe Tips and Variants

Right here are a handful of of my most loved guidelines and tips to support you make this Slow Cooker Ratatouille:

• Caramelize the onions to start with. For some excess flavor, try out caramelizing the onions on the stove before tossing them into the gradual cooker. Positive, this provides a handful of further minutes of prep time. It also tends to make it even additional delightful!
• Layer the veggies. For a far more standard ratatouille, layer the greens within the slow cooker! To do so, slice your zucchini, squash, and eggplant into rounds and layer them above top rated of finely-chopped tomatoes.
• Insert some protein. For an further enjoyable and well-rounded dish, sense absolutely free to incorporate the protein resource of your choice. This dish goes fantastic with chicken, sausage, or sauteed shrimp. For a vegetarian protein resource, I endorse chickpeas, lentils, or tofu.
• Switch up your veggies. The classic veggies in ratatouille are zucchini, squash, eggplant, and tomatoes. Having said that, you can blend and match whichever vegetables you have at house.
• Substitute tomatoes. If you just cannot uncover hearth roasted tomatoes at the store, you can swap them out for your most loved canned whole tomatoes alternatively.

How to Provide Gradual Cooker Ratatouille

Here are my beloved strategies to serve this delightful, nutritious supper recipe:

• Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and contemporary basil and serve as a massive previous bowl of hearty stew. You could also check out pairing it with a facet salad like this Quick Arugula Salad.
• If you are on the lookout for a little something additional filling for a evening meal get together, serve this ratatouille as a delectable sauce poured about your beloved pasta. Pair it with crispy garlic bread and this dish promptly gets a mouth-watering Italian feast.
• Test spooning this ratatouille about a bowl of brown rice, quinoa, or cauliflower rice for a reduced-carb alternative. Major with new parsley and feta cheese.
• Turn this into breakfast by topping the leftover ratatouille with poached or fried eggs. 

How to Retail outlet Ratatouille

Have confidence in me when I say that you are heading to want to make enough of this sensational dish for leftovers. I normally make a big batch so I can enjoy the leftovers for lunch over the next several days. Before storing the dish, you will will need to allow for it to neat down to place temperature. Then, transfer it to an airtight storage container and retailer it in one of two methods:

• In the fridge for up to 5 times.
• In the freezer for up to 3 months.