Slow-Cooker Vegetable Stew

Kateryna Bondar
Slow-Cooker Vegetable StewSlow-Cooker Vegetable Stew
Cuisine
Course
Serves 4 people
Prep time
20m
Cook Time
1h 0m

Slow-cooker vegetable stew doesn’t have to be a gray, collapsed mush. The trick is browning in stages — onion first, then potato, carrot and pepper, tomato, eggplant, and finally zucchini — so each one reaches the right tenderness before the braise pulls the flavors together.

Ragu here is a catch-all for braised-vegetable dishes that go by different names across cuisines — ratatouille in France, ajapsandali in Georgia. Low, slow heat gives a result much like clay-pot cooking, deep and mellow.

Swaps and Pointers

  • White or graffiti-striped eggplants aren’t bitter, so you can skip the salting-and-draining step.
  • For a vegan version, don’t brown at all: just pile everything in the bowl, add broth, and braise for 1 to 1.5 hours.
  • Plum tomatoes give off less water than big slicers, so the stew comes out thicker.
  • Add the fresh herbs and garlic at the very end to keep their aroma.

Serve hot as a main or a side — it pairs well with grains and roasted meat — and note it’s genuinely good cold the next day, once the flavors have settled.

Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 288 more recipes in the section.

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Ingredients

  • 2 Pieces
    small eggplants
  • 2 Pieces
    sweet red peppers
  • 2 Pieces
    medium potatoes
  • 2 Pieces
    large onions
  • 1 Piece
    small zucchini
  • 1 Piece
    small carrot
  • 2 Pieces
    large tomatoes or 5-6 plum tomatoes
  • 0.5 Cups
    broth or water (cup)
  • 2 Pieces
    garlic (optional)
  • 1 Teaspoon
    salt
  • 1 Piece
    bunch of dill and parsley
  • fresh basil
  • spices of choice: ground black and red pepper, cumin, paprika, coriander
  • 6 Tablespoons
    vegetable oil for frying (6-7 spoonfuls)

Instructions

  1. Wash, peel, and coarsely chop the vegetables. If you like, peel the tomatoes: score them crosswise, drop them into boiling water, and after 5 minutes drain and cover with cold water; the skin slips off easily.

  2. If the eggplants are bitter, cut them, salt them lightly, and leave for 15 minutes to release their juice, then rinse with cold water and pat dry.

  3. Chop the herbs. Mince the garlic with a knife or press.

  4. Pour 3-5 tablespoons of oil into the bottom of the bowl and set the Fry/Bake program for 30 minutes. Saute the onion for 5 minutes. Add the potatoes for 5 minutes, then the carrot and pepper for 5 minutes, then the tomatoes for 5 minutes, then the eggplant with a couple of spoonfuls of oil for 5 minutes, and finally the zucchini for another 5 minutes, stirring each time.

  5. Pour in the hot water or broth, salt, and add the fresh herbs, garlic, and spices to taste. Stir. Set the Braise program for 30 minutes. When it finishes, stir the stew and leave it for 15 minutes in the switched-off cooker, as in a thermos.

Nutrition: Calories: 290 kcal · protein 5 g · fat 18 g · carbs 30 g (per serving, estimated)

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