Best Side Dishes For Ratatouille Ratatouille is a traditional French dish made famous by the critically acclaimed 2007 animated film Ratatouille. A bite of ratatouille made classic cinema when it triggered a stirring flashback to scathing critic Anton Ego’s childhood.
The scene is a testament to the power of food. It shows that a dish as good as ratatouille can warm even the coldest heart.
Away from the big screen, ratatouille definitely lives up to the hype. Its bright and colorful visual appearance is an instant pick-me-up.
The beautifully arranged slices of red tomato, purple eggplant, green zucchini and red, yellow and green peppers draw immediate attention to the dish. These vegetables peak in the summer.
Season these vegetables with herbs, spices and olive oil to create a light summery dish that pairs well with a breathtaking variety of dishes. Let’s explore the endless possibilities!
Before we begin, remember that ratatouille is suitable for vegans and vegetarians! It’s also both gluten-free and dairy-free.
1. Easy Homemade French Bread
Bread is the easiest side dish to enjoy with ratatouille. As a French Provençal dish, ratatouille is traditionally enjoyed with classic French bread.
You can buy some from the store. Or you can make your own following this simple recipe which uses easily available ingredients.
French bread is the best kind of bread to have with ratatouille. Still, you may choose to substitute it for other kinds of bread.
2. Mushroom Rice Pilaf
Rice pilaf is fluffy and soft. The rice grains separate easily because pilaf is not a stew. Neither is it sticky like risotto.
It’s popular all around the world with many alternative names like pilau and polao. The rice dish is seasoned using spices with added meat or vegetables.
Mushroom rice pilaf is perfect for vegans and vegetarians. Enjoying it with ratatouille is simply delectable.
3. Seriously Good Quinoa Salad
Colors galore! A good quinoa salad will be nearly as colorful as ratatouille, making for a fun and vibrant eating experience.
This salad is also amazingly nutritious. Over time, quinoa has developed into a staple dish for vegans and vegetarians because of its high protein content.
Quinoa makes a wonderful salad base because it deeply absorbs the salad dressing. Use crunchy vegetables, nuts, and dried raisins, blueberries or cranberries.
4. Fried Polenta
Polenta is Italian for cornmeal. It’s made using coarsely-ground yellow flint corn. This coarse nature makes the fried polenta pieces crunchy on the outside, but creamy on the inside.
Traditionally, polenta is served with richly flavored foods like cheese and mushrooms. Polenta’s starchy base is a fantastic accompaniment to the tangy notes in ratatouille. Season your polenta depending on your needs.
5. Herb and Garlic Pork
Pork is a nutritious, well-loved meat that can be cooked in any number of ways. It’s easy to cook, yet there are elaborate pork recipes you can follow if you’d like a gourmet meal.
Follow this recipe to combine the best of pork with the best of ratatouille. Season the pork tenderloin with crushed garlic cloves and thyme leaves and sautée it until it turns brown.
6. Oven Roasted Chicken
Chicken almost always tastes amazing. And because you can never go wrong pairing ratatouille with meat, it makes the perfect side dish.
This charming recipe will show you how to make rich, buttery and perfectly seasoned oven-roasted chicken.
The spices in the chicken will heighten the light summery nature of your ratatouille. Baking the chicken instead of frying ensures that it remains earthy in taste, just like ratatouille.
7. Broccoli Kale Salad with Homemade Lemon Dressing
Jump headfirst into this veggie overload! Pairing broccoli salad with ratatouille is sure to completely meet your vitamin and fiber needs for the day.
Both dishes complement one another because of how light and airy they are. The root vegetable base of ratatouille serves as a counterweight to the soft, crunchy textures of the broccoli and kale. The homemade lemon dressing further elevates both dishes.
8. Vichyssoise Soup
Vichyssoise also makes an appearance in the film Ratatouille! This classic soup is inspired by traditional French cuisine. It’s a chilled potato and leek soup. The soup is chilled using cream and milk.
It makes a perfect side dish for ratatouille. They are French dishes that expand on each other’s flavors. The creamy, smooth and filling texture of vichyssoise really makes ratatouille’s crunch pop. The soup’s leeks, onions and chives bring out ratatouille’s vibrant veggie taste.
9. Classic Baked Macaroni and Cheese
You can never really go wrong with classic mac-n-cheese. It’s one of the best known side dishes because of its sheer versatility.
When you cook macaroni in cheese, you create a soft yet intensely flavorful dish. This burst of flavor contrasts beautifully with ratatouille’s light crunchiness. It also offers a starchy reprieve from ratatouille’s root vegetable tangy taste.
10. Tender Flank Steak
A sizzling tender flank steak will look perfect next to your ratatouille dish. The heat from the steak will form a great counterpoint to the cool crunchy vegetables of your ratatouille.
Make an amazing marinade using cracked black pepper, kosher salt, garlic cloves, crushed red pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. The Worcestershire sauce is the king of this steak. Vinegar and soy sauce ingredients are a star combo.
11. Root Vegetable Mash
Root vegetable mash is like mashed potatoes, but for root vegetables. You can turn the kitchen leftovers from your ratatouille dish into this wonderful side dish.
The recipe calls for white potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga and celery root. But you can substitute these for your kitchen leftovers (eggplant and zucchini). Or you can simply add them to the mash. The recipe has dairy-free and low calorie options.
12. Mediterranean Lemony White Bean Salad
The Mediterranean basin includes the French Provençal region, where ratatouille comes from. The notes of flavor in this white bean salad are similar to ratatouille, making it a nice ratatouille side dish.
Both ratatouille and this white bean salad use peppers and tomatoes. The salad also uses fresh olives, while ratatouille is made using olive oil.
The perfect lemon dressing heightens the salad’s earthiness to match the natural vibrancy of ratatouille.
13. Chickpea Casserole with Lemon, Herbs, and Shallots
This delicious casserole is vegetarian friendly! It’s creamy but low fat, using low-fat yogurt and cottage cheese instead of old-fashioned cheese and cream.
It’s full of chickpeas and a touch of brown rice. Freely spice and season it using fresh lemon and lemon zest, shallots, garlic, parsley, rosemary, kosher salt, and black pepper. It’s a colorful casserole whose vibrant appearance will pleasantly complement your ratatouille.
14. Balsamic Honey-Glazed Carrots
Ratatouille is made of ordinary vegetables prepared with a twist! That’s how balsamic honey-glazed carrots go so well with ratatouille.
Carrots are as ordinary as they come. Glazing them with honey and bathing them in balsamic vinegar takes them to the next level. Their lovely interesting taste perfectly accompanies ratatouille.
This charming homemade recipe will show you how to do it all.
15. Marinated Cherry Tomato Salad
This flavorful salad will provide a funky, exciting side to your ratatouille. Preparing it won’t take more than a few minutes of your time. Split your cherry tomatoes into two. Place olives in between and then put these into a mixture of olive oil, lime juice and garlic.
All these flavors might be too much! But this salad’s eclectic nature matches ratatouille’s sharp diverse taste.
16. Creamy Cauliflower Soup
This rich creamy soup is both delicious and easy to make. The main ingredients are cauliflower florets. Sautée the cauliflower florets with onion and garlic. Add chicken broth to provide body to the soup. Use a blender to create a seamless soup.
Add half-and-half as well as grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese for the creamy texture. Season well with salt, pepper, and seasoning of your choosing.
17. Baked Asparagus with Cheese Sauce
This herby dish is earthy yet tasty in a way that perfectly complements ratatouille. Ratatouille is made purely of vegetables.
The kick in this dish comes from the cheese sauce. If you choose this as your side dish, this cheesiness will make your ratatouille entrée exciting.
Make the cheese sauce using shredded mozzarella cheese, grated Parmesan cheese, cornstarch, ground mustard, and half-and-half.
18. Potato and Onion Frittata
This fried hearty meal tastes wonderful with light summery ratatouille. You can cut it into cake-shaped slices that each of your guests will enjoy with their ratatouille serving. Yukon Gold potatoes form the centerpiece of this dish. They lend their yellow color to the frittata.
You will have to use about seven eggs as well. The eggs stick together the potato bits to create the cake-like texture of the frittata.
19. Soft and Creamy Scrambled Eggs
You can never really go wrong with some soft and creamy scrambled eggs. Although ratatouille is most often a lunch or dinner dish, this side dish turns it into great breakfast material.
If you have leftover ratatouille that you left in the fridge overnight, consider whipping up a quick side of scrambled eggs for a filling and nutritious breakfast!
Summary
Ratatouille is a very impressive dish on its own. However, it pairs astoundingly well with various other dishes.
We searched far and wide to put together some of the best dishes for ratatouille. These dish are guaranteed to enhance ratatouille’s simple summery goodness!
