This Instant Pot Ratatouille recipe is a delicious, satisfying vegetarian and vegan dish made with summer’s bounty of zucchini, bell pepper, eggplant, tomato, and fresh herbs. This pressure cooker ratatouille recipe was inspired by Julia Child’s stovetop ratatouille recipe. Stovetop directions included, too!
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I’m embarrassed to admit that my family’s favorite ratatouille was the Disney movie with the same name! That was until I made this recipe for the first time and we fell in love with it.
Ratatouille is a hearty French stew made with eggplants, zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, and onions. It’s vegan, healthy, and delicious.
I ended up making this Instant Pot Ratatouille purely by chance. I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal about the Instant Pot, and it included a ratatouille recipe that was based on Julia Child’s classic cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
I love to serve this ratatouille on toasted crostini, with goat cheese, drizzled with balsamic vinegar. It is the best recipe and you won’t believe that something so healthy can taste so good.
Emily says ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is really good. Very good flavors! Thank you, I will be making it again!
Even if you’re not a big fan of eggplant I urge you to give this Instant Pot eggplant stew a try. My kids are not eggplant lovers, but they love this dish.
The main work involved with this recipe is chopping the vegetables into ¼-inch pieces and then sauteing them to get them slightly brown. The Instant Pot does the remaining work: just pressure cook and saute at the end to let the liquid evaporate.
So the next time you go to the farmer’s market and pick up fresh summer vegetables, consider making this tasty and healthy dish. It tastes even better the next day, so make it ahead and serve it at your next gathering.
➡ Looking for Instant Pot vegetarian recipes? Try Instant Pot Moroccan stew, vegetarian rigatoni bolognese, Turkish green beans, Ethiopian lentil stew, or Middle Eastern potatoes.
Ingredients and Tips
🧂 Instant Pot Ratatouille Ingredients
💡 Ingredient and Recipe Tips
💧 Liquid: Yes, the recipe is correct – you don’t need any added liquid! Vegetables release enough moisture to bring the Instant Pot to pressure. If using an 8-quart Instant Pot, add 1-2 tablespoons water.
🍶 Olive Oil & Vinegar: Use good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar for drizzling before serving. Don’t skip the balsamic drizzle – it adds the perfect finishing touch! Add salt to taste. For richer flavor, use a couple extra tablespoons of olive oil when sautéing (eggplant soaks up a lot!)
🥄 Deglazing: Make sure there are no browned bits are stuck to the bottom right before pressure cooking, or your Instant Pot won’t come to pressure. Add a bit of water or white wine to deglaze if needed.
🍲 Consistency: The ratatouille will be quite liquidy after pressure cooking. Use Sauté mode to cook off excess liquid and thicken. If you want firmer vegetables, decrease pressure cook time by a couple of minutes. Drain the chopped tomatoes before cooking if they’re too liquidy.
🍅 Flavor Boosters: Add 1 tablespoon tomato paste over vegetables before pressure cooking and stir in when cooking is done. Try rosemary, thyme, or herbes de Provence for variety.
🍽️ Serving Ideas: Serve as an appetizer on crostini with goat cheese, as a side dish with roast chicken or lamb (try my Coq au vin blanc), or as a main dish over pasta or polenta.
🔥 Burn Message: The main reason you can get the burn message is that after frying the eggplant, there are brown bits stuck to the bottom. It’s very important that you deglaze very well afterwards. Your other option is to saute the eggplant in a separate nonstick frying pan.
❓ FAQS
Fresh tomatoes taste best when in season, but if using canned tomatoes add them at the top and don’t stir them in before pressure cooking.
Add more fresh herbs, balsamic vinegar, or crushed red pepper.
It’s very important for this recipe that you deglaze well, especially after you saute the eggplant. The other choice is to saute the eggplant in a separate nonstick pan and add it back in before pressure cooking.
⏲️ How to Make Ratatouille in the Instant Pot
- Sprinkle kosher salt on the eggplant, toss to coat and allow to drain in a colander set over a bowl.
- Allow Instant Pot to heat up. Once the inner pot is hot, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Saute onion, then zucchini and garlic, and finally bell pepper. Saute for 3 to 5 minutes after each addition, stirring occassionally. Add whole basil leaves and stir. Transfer everything to a large bowl and set aside.
- Add 2 more tablespoons olive oil to the inner pot. Add drained eggplant and saute until lightly browned, stirring frequently. Make sure it doesn’t burn. Add more olive oil as needed.
- Add back in reserved vegetables, crushed red pepper, black pepper, and capers. Stir gently, allowing the reserved vegetables to deglaze the pan. (If there are brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pot, add a tablespoon or more of water or white wine.) Top with tomatoes.
- Close the lid.
- Select Pressure Cook mode and cook on high pressure for 4 minutes.
- The display will go from On to 4:00. The float valve will go up after a few minutes. The display will count down to 00:00.
- Do a quick release of pressure. Once the float valve goes down, the lid can be opened.
- The ratatouille will have some liquid. Select Saute mode. Simmer until the ratatouille has thickened up, about 6 to 8 minutes.
- Drizzle with balsamic vinegar.
See the recipe card below for detailed instructions.
Instant Pot Ratatouille
Ingredients
- 3 cups eggplant (about 1 medium), cubed into ¼-inch pieces
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoon olive oil (extra virgin), divided
- 1 ½ cups onion (about 1 medium), diced
- 3 cups zucchini (about 2 medium), cubed into ¼-inch pieces
- 2 tablespoon garlic (about 6 cloves), minced
- 3 cups bell peppers (about 2 medium), cubed into ½-inch pieces
- 5 whole basil leaves
- 1 ½ tablespoon basil leaves thinly sliced
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper or to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper powder freshly ground, to taste
- 1 tablespoon capers
- 2 ½ cups tomatoes (about 2 large) chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon parsley chopped
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar good quality
- Additional olive oil and balsamic vinegar for drizzling
Instructions
- Sprinkle salt on the eggplant, toss to coat and allow to drain in a colander set over a bowl.
Instant Pot Instructions
- In Saute mode, heat 2 tablespoon olive oil.
- Add onion, and cook until translucent, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Add zucchini and garlic, saute 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add bell pepper, saute 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add whole basil leaves and stir.
- Press Cancel and transfer contents of inner pot into a large bowl and set aside.
- In Saute mode, heat 2 tablespoon olive oil.
- Add drained eggplant and saute until lightly browned, stirring frequently. Make sure it doesn't burn.
- Add back in reserved vegetables, crushed red pepper, black pepper, and capers.
- Stir gently, making sure that there are no brown bits sticking to the bottom of the inner pot. [See Note 1]
- Top with tomatoes.
- Pressure cook on High Pressure for 4 minutes.
- Do a quick release of pressure. [Read More: The Different Pressure Release Methods]
- Press Cancel and open the Instant Pot. The ratatouille will have some liquid.
- In Saute mode, simmer until the Instant Pot ratatouille has thickened up, about 6 to 8 minutes.
- Sprinkle with chopped basil and parsley, drizzle additional olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the top.
- Serve as a side dish, with pasta, with a medley of salads, or on a toasted baguette topped with goat cheese.
Stovetop Instructions
- Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed large skillet. Drain the eggplant and saute until lightly browned. Add more olive oil as needed. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet and saute the zucchini for a couple of minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Heat 1 more tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the onions and bell peppers until tender, about 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the garlic and saute for a minute.
- Spread the tomatoes over the peppers and onions, cover and cook on low heat for about 5 minutes or until the tomatoes begin to break down and the mixture thickens. Stir in the crushed red pepper, black pepper and capers.
- Stir in reserved eggplant and zucchini, lower heat and cook for 10 to 15 minutes more, until all the vegetables are soft. Make sure the vegetables don't burn or stick to the bottom. If there's extra liquid on the bottom, remove the lid and increase the heat to allow the liquid to evaporate.
- Finish by sprinkling with chopped basil and parsley. Drizzle additional olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the top. Adjust seasonings to taste.
Notes
- Note 1: Be sure that all brown bits are incorporated into the dish before pressure cooking begins, otherwise there is a risk of the Instant Pot not coming to pressure and/or getting the burn error. Adding the reserved vegetables should take care of deglazing, but if that doesn’t work, add a tablespoon of water to scrape up the brown bits. If you continue to have burn message issues, the best thing to do is to saute the eggplant in a nonstick frying pan and then add it in before pressure cooking.
- This recipe has been modified to decrease the pressure cooking time from 8 minutes to 4 minutes based on reader feedback.
- Adapted from Wall Street Journal’s Can the Instant Pot Cook as Well as Julia Child?
Nutrition
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I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
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Ceejay Young says
I had peppers and zucchini from the garden and was looking for a recipe that wouldn’t heat up the kitchen during our Minnesota heat wave. This recipe was spectacular! So full of flavor! I did add herbs de Provence, some Aleppo pepper flakes, and tomato paste, adding kalamata olives after pressure cooking when I was sauteeing the extra liquid out. I also added a bit of white wine to deglaze. And bonus! I used the leftover ratatouille for wraps with some goat cheese the next day when kayaking. I think the tomato paste thickened the mix up after refrigerating overnight so it wasn’t drippy. 🙂 This recipe is now in our summer rotation. Thanks!
Neena Panicker says
Ceejay, thank you for your comment. I’m so happy that the Instant Pot ratatouille will be part of your meal rotation! Thanks for sharing your method.