My Veggie Tian
Tian is the French word that describes the shallow dish that most French casseroles are made in. The dish is mostly used to bake layered vegetables, which can either be boring or delicious. My take on this classic French dish typically uses whatever I have harvested that day from the garden. When you layer bright colored summer vegetables in the dish, it’s always a feast for the eyes.
Notice I forgot to take a photo of the baked dish, everyone inhaled the entire dish, so the only photo I got was the empty dish.
For this recipe, I combined fresh tomatoes, zucchini and a green eggplant since they were all ready to be harvested. You will notice these are very familiar French flavors and are used in other vegetable dishes such as ratatouille. I like to top the dish with a combination of panko break crumbs and Parmesan cheese to give it a golden crispy, gooey topping. If you’re using tomatoes, don’t be surprised that the dish may be more or less soupy depending on the water content of the tomatoes. It really doesn’t matter though, because the flavor is still amazing.
- Note: I’m not providing exact amounts for the first three ingredients. You want equal amounts and similar sizes for each. Slice them thin (¼ inch). You will need enough to equally layer your dish, which translates into approximately 1 – 1 ½ pounds of each.
- tomatoes
- eggplant
- zucchini
- 1 red onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon Herbs de Provence
- ½ cup panko crumbs
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese
- olive oil
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a medium sauté pan. Add in the red onion and sauté for 5-7 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.
- Spray a 9x13 ceramic baking dish with cooking spray. Sprinkle the onion and garlic over the bottom.
- Take the slices of tomato, eggplant and zucchini and layer them into the pan so that they are almost standing up. Continue around the pan and into the center until you use up all of the ingredients.
- Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the Herbs de Provence, 1 teaspoon pepper and 1-2 teaspoon salt.
- Cover dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
- Mix the Parmesan and panko together and drizzle with olive oil just to bind it together slightly.
- After 30 minutes, remove the foil, and sprinkle the top with the panko/Parmesan mixture. Bake uncovered for another 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender and topping is golden.
