French Vegetable Tian

A classic vegetarian French delicacy that is not only so beautiful but super delicious to eat. Tian is an oval-shaped earthenware that goes from oven to table. It is usually filled with layered, overlapping vegetables with some sauce and served as a main or side dish.

This is a baked vegetable dish that is made with a wide variety of vegetables like tomato, onion, garlic, zucchini, yellow squash, Eggplant beautifully sliced and arranged in a baking dish or cast iron pan along with a combination of fresh herbs and spices.

I had seen the movie 'Ratatouille' and that was when I was inspired to make this dish. I tried adding roasted veggies while making the sauce to make it more flavourful and healthy.

The main part of this recipe is slicing the veggies evenly so they can be arranged perfectly in a baking dish or cast iron pan. I have used a cast iron pan here as I made the sauce in it and placed the slices on the same without having to transfer into another baking pan.

I have used the store-bought tomato sauce...you can make your own by blending the tomatoes along with other veggies in the process. Time to get creative and arrange these beautiful layers of veggies and devouring a healthy side dish with rice or bread.

Let's dive into the recipe...

INGREDIENTS:

Tomato puree 1 cup

Onion small chopped 1

Celery sticks chopped 2

Garlic cloves 3-4

Olive oil 3 tbsp

Red Bell Pepper 1

Carrots small 2

Jalapeno peppers 3

Green Zucchini 2

Yellow Squash 2

Eggplant big 1

Tomatoes 3

Basil 4-5 leaves

Parsley finely chopped 1tbsp

Butter 1tbsp

Salt to taste

Sugar to taste

INSTRUCTION:

1. First roast carrots, red bell pepper, and jalapeno peppers on the stovetop till charred. Remove from heat and keep aside.

2.Time to carefully slice the zucchinis tomatoes, yellow squash, and Eggplant into thin equal slices. Keep the eggplant slices submerged in saltwater. Keep other veggie slices neatly in a tray/plate for easy access.

3.Lets make the sauce...Heat a Cast iron pan, add 2tbsp olive oil, chopped onions, garlic cloves, saute for a minute. Now add celery sticks and chopped roasted carrots...Saute well.

3.Now add chopped roasted red pepper and chopped roasted green jalapeno peppers and saute again.

4.Time to add tomato puree.. mix well and saute for 2 minutes.

5.Simmer the gas on low and close the lid. Let it cook for 5 minutes.

6.Once cooked, off the gas and keep aside for it to cool down. Once cooled add all the ingredients to a blender jar. Also add some basil leaves, parsley, salt, and sugar.

7.Blend it into a fine paste and transfer it to the Cast iron pan again.

8.Now comes the interesting part of arranging all the slices uniformly over the bed of Tomato sauce. Take one slice each of green zucchini, yellow squash, tomato, and eggplant , make a stack of 4, and carefully place it over the bed of Tomato sauce. Now take the next four slices of each of the veggies in the same order and place it along with the first stack closely. Start from the outer layer and continue keeping the stacks closely till you reach the center.

9.Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. 

10. In a small bowl, add melted butter, finely chopped parsley, and basil leaves.

11.Brush the butter mixture over the arranged layers of veggies.

12.Now place the cast iron pan in the preheated Oven and cover with a thick steel plate. (Please note: Use of aluminum foil and tin foil in baking is harmful and may leech into the food..so I prefer using steel plate /beeswax wraps instead which works perfectly fine.). Bake for 30 minutes covered and the next 20 minutes uncovered.

13.Once baked, take out of the oven. Garnish with basil and parsley and serve hot or cold.

To serve just take a stack of the four colored veggies and serve on a plate...to be eaten along with rice or bread.

I hope you will love this delicious beautiful dish and try it out. Do give me feedback on how did you like this recipe. Also please tag me if you make this on Instagram with my Insta handle @archanasvegfoodchronicles.