One-Pot Ratatouille in 30 minutes! (Quick & Easy)

This is the best French summer vegetable stew that you can stir up in one pot within 30 minutes. I say to stir up because the traditional ratatouille is cooked on a stovetop and NOT BAKED. It is a quick and easy dish to make from colorful summer vegetables like fresh tomato, zucchini, eggplant, and bell pepper. It is naturally vegan and vegetarian.

Are you also a fan of summer veggie recipes? It is so easy to make vibrant dishes with them. We do love our easy grilled vegetable kabobs recipe which is a must-have side dish during grilling season. Or have you seen this easy vegan minestrone soup? Loaded with an array of veggies and legumes. If you need a super easy no-cook summer dish, try our sweet and savory cold watermelon soup prepared in gazpacho style.

Is ratatouille vegetarian?

Yes, ratatouille is not only vegetarian but accidentally vegan as well. It is also one of the easiest and quickest stews you can ever make. It is actually full of fresh, young colorful veggies chopped into larger chunks and cooked on the stovetop within 30 minutes. No sauce, no water, not even veggie broth is added or needed as the juices from the veggies, especially from the tomatoes will serve as the stew base. Nothing but vegetables. Hence ratatouille is completely vegan.

The word “ratatouille” even means “stir up“, so here we are stirring up delicious vegetables in one pot instead of the trendy baked version also known as confit byaldi you might have seen in the Pixar movie.

So how is the traditional dish made?

• It is a light vegetable-only stew that originated in Provence, France.
• It is not baked, roasted, or grilled.
• There are no potatoes, carrots, or other root vegetables.
• Definitely no cheese of any kind.

If you’d like some comparable dishes to imagine what ratatouille tastes like, you can think of

• Italian Eggplant Caponata, or
• Middle Eastern Shakshouka or
• Hungarian Lecsó.

Ingredients

Okay, so you might think it is redundant to list ingredients because you already know that there are 6 vegetables: onion, garlic, tomatoes, eggplant (aka aubergine), zucchini (aka courgette), and bell peppers. But how to choose the best vegetables for this stovetop ratatouille recipe?

• Tomato: This is the most important vegetable in this recipe. As there is no sauce or veggie broth, the juiciness of your dish depends on your choice of tomatoes. Cherry tomato or cocktail tomato is definitely not ideal to use as they are more skin than flesh. You need the large, juicy tomatoes. The best ever dish we made was the combination of beefsteak and heirloom tomatoes we bought from a local organic farmer.
• Eggplant: The most authentic type to use is globe eggplant. If you are interested in learning more about eggplants (types, storing, tips, and hacks), visit our how to cook with eggplant guide.
• Zucchini: You can use yellow or green or their combination, but the most important is to choose young, small, thinner ones. If zucchini is longer than your two fists combined, then it may have thicker skin, it may taste bitter-ish, and it may have too large seeds. All zucchinis are summer squash, but not all summer squashes are zucchini.
• Bell pepper: Red, yellow, and green are all game. If I use green zucchini, I would choose yellow or red peppers to have a colorful dish at the end.
• Onion: It is not a dish to substitute for leeks, shallots, or spring onion. Red or yellow onion is the only type you need.

🛒 You can find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Instructions

We love meals that are easy, simple, and quick. Cooking ratatouille is no exception. There is a bit of a misconception that you need to bake any ingredients separately otherwise they will not cook in time. For us, the veggies are perfect when they are crunchy a bit and you can distinguish all kinds. Let us show you how to make the perfect one-pot ratatouille for 2 in approx. 30 minutes!

Prepare the ingredients

• Peel and chop onion and garlic.
• Wash and chop zucchini/yellow squash and eggplant. Cut both of them into 1-inch (1-1,5 cm) thick slices and then cut the “discs” into quarters. No need to peel them as without it the pieces may turn into mush or at least be lost among the other veggies. (More tips and hacks on choosing, storing, and preparing eggplants.)
• Wash and cut tomatoes first into wedges, then cut them in half or in third. You need to end up with pieces in the size of an inch (1-1,5 cm).
• Wash and slice bell peppers. First cut them in half, then remove the seeds and the stem. Lay it on the cutting board and slice vertical stripes. Now, cut the stripes in half horizontally so you have 2-3 inch long (3-4 cm) stripes.

Cooking ratatouille

1. Heat a stock pot or a Dutch oven to medium heat and add olive oil. Add chopped onion. Stir and cook for approx. 2 minutes.
2. Add chopped garlic. Stir and cook for another minute.
3. Add chopped tomatoes, bell peppers, salt, and black pepper. Now, cover it with a lid and bring it to a boil.
4. Remove lid, stir and cook for 6-8 minutes until the tomatoes are mushy and there are juices. 

5. Finally, add the chopped zucchini and eggplant.
6. Stir and cook until they are tender, not mushy. The zucchini should be a bit crunchy to bite on. The eggplant should be soft and not crunchy at all. The juices should be evaporated mostly and the ratatouille should get a stew-like consistency. It takes us about 10 more minutes to get this texture in our Dutch oven. Now, you are ready to serve! You can top it with fresh basil or fresh thyme.

Top tips to make it in 30 minutes!

• Juicy tomatoes -> As I mentioned above you need to pick juicy, soft, mature tomatoes. They are the ones that are so ripe that they fall apart quickly and form the base of the stew easily. If you have hard, unripe veggies or cocktail tomatoes (that are more skin than flesh), then it will take longer to cook them or even you will not be able to produce the juices needed to make ratatouille.
• Fresh tomatoes vs canned chopped tomatoes -> The traditional way is to use fresh, juicy, ripe tomatoes, but we do understand that it is not always possible to get hold of those. You can use chopped canned tomatoes (not tomato sauce or tomato paste) so you have a bit of chunky texture.
• Cut all veggies in the size of 1-2 inch cubes -> The smaller you cut them, the shorter will be the cooking time.
• Use the lid -> Covering your pot with a lid ensures that the juices are kept in the stew as well as it maintains a hot temperature to cook the chopped vegetables faster.

What to serve with it?

I would say I love the fact that it is a naturally vegan ratatouille and that there is nothing else but pure veggies. To soak up the juices we love to dunk in a nice crusty bread (here is a recipe for homemade GF sourdough bread in case you need to eat gluten-free as we do).

However, if you want to add something, we recommend 3 things:

1. Add some grains. We prefer cooked plain white or brown rice.
2. Make scrambled eggs or omelets or fried eggs. (If you are looking for a vegan option, make tofu scramble, vegan fried eggs, vegan frittata, or savory vegan french toast.)
3. Grill or roast a couple of sausages. (Obviously, you can also use vegan sausages.) 

But we haven’t stopped here. There are even more ways to enjoy this dish. We collected 25 creative recipes to pair them with it in a separate post called What to serve with ratatouille? Just a little teaser the list includes creamy polenta, cauliflower rice, lentil loaf, and more.

FAQs and substitutions

How to store it?

It is perfect for batch cooking. It tastes even better with every passing day. You can easily store it in the fridge for 3-4 days without any problem.

Can I freeze it?

Yes, you can. It keeps really well in the freezer. We recommend freezing them in batches of 1-2 servings.

Allergen info

This vegetarian ratatouille recipe is meat-free, dairy-free, and egg-free.

• Vegan – All ingredients are supposed to be vegan.
• Nut-free – It is nut-free since vegetables are the only ingredients.
• WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) – To make it compliant you need to avoid using oil. You can start with a bit of water or veggie broth to cook the vegetables in. Later, as the tomatoes are cooking, more juices will be released. But watch it carefully and stir it frequently, especially in the beginning.
• Gluten-free – All ingredients are supposed to be gluten-free since there are only vegetables.
• Soy-free – No, there are no soy products, so you can be sure it is a soy-free recipe.

More stew and soup recipes

You can browse through our vegan soup recipes or our quick & easy vegan meals collection or check out

More vegan eggplant recipes

We love eggplant recipes so much. We even made a 30+ MUST-TRY vegan eggplant recipes list. If you are the same, you will be over the moon with these delicious dishes: