Trader Joe’s Cod Provençale with Ratatouille & Rice Review

Trader Joe’s Cod Provençale

Trader Joe’s Cod Provençale with Ratatouille & Rice is a dish that has some fancy-sounding words in its name. Provençale has a goofy-looking C in it, fir instance. While ratatouille is the name of a popular Pixar cartoon, the food itself is a French dish that originated in about 1877. (Ratatouille is also categorized as a subcategory of provençale.)

Anyway, despite all these fancy words and references to cartoons, Trader Joe’s Cod Provençale with Ratatouille & Rice is a relatively simple frozen dish. Today, we’re checking it out to see how it tastes.

So let’s begin.

First off, this is designed to be heated in the microwave, but the cook time is still quite long. Prepare to spend six to seven minutes waiting for this thing to cook, and another three minutes waiting for it to cool before you dive in. That’s ten whole minutes, which makes this perhaps not the best thing to bring to work for your lunch break. After all, you certainly don’t want to spend ten whole minutes of your break standing next to a microwave, and your co-workers might not appreciate that either.

Trader Joe’s Cod Provençale with Ratatouille & Rice

This comes out looking far less fancy than the name might imply, and it smells incredibly fishy. We’re not exaggerating — this thing really reeks of fish, and not in a good way. It’s a pungent odor that might give you second thoughts about actually eating this stuff.

However, it’s only the cod that smells this way, and once you mix the ratatouille and rice with the cod, it ends up not tasting anywhere near as fishy as it smells. Now, we have to admit that we’re not the biggest fans of how this cod tastes on its own — and we also found it to be a little dry — so the ratatouille was a lifesaver here.

In fact, the ratatouille is definitely the best part of this dish. Especially since the rice is bland and doesn’t seem to cook very well. The eggplant portion is especially good.

The package contains one serving, so you don’t have to worry about doing a bunch of math to figure out how many calories are in a box. This meal contains 400 calories (190 from fat) and 340 mg. While this isn’t a diet meal, it’s also not all that bad in the calorie department, and it’s surprisingly low in sodium to boot. (We should point out that we mean this is low in sodium for a frozen meal, not low in sodium in general.)

Trader Joe’s Cod Provençale with Ratatouille & Rice is certainly not for everyone. If you want a subtle seafood dish, this is probably not for you. While the ratatouille portion is excellent, the rest of this dish seems a bit sub-par. Trader Joe’s certainly has better seafood options in their frozen food line, such as the Cioppino Seafood Stew and the Saucy Scallops with Mushrooms. We’d recommend either of those dishes over the Cod Provençale any day of the week.

To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Trader Joe’s Cod Provençale, check out our package scan below.

Trader Joe’s Cod Provençale
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Elizabeth
Elizabeth
1 year ago

Trader Joe’s Cod Provencale with Ratatouille and Rice rates among the worst frozen dinners I have ever eaten. It was oily, but worse, there was absolutely no flavor! I’m not one for spicy food, but I do appreciate herbal seasonings and at least a hint of umami. Why you sell this mushy mess while discontinuing the scrumptious frozen Shakshuka starter makes no sense. 

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