I put my favourite vegetables together in this beautiful Vegetable Tian. The classic French version is made with zucchini, tomato and eggplant. I used zucchini, yams and sweet potatoes. It’s somewhat like a ratatouille, but the Vegetable Tian is far prettier.
You can arrange the sliced vegetables any way you like. I like alternating the vegetables because it’s visually appealing, but it also serves another purpose. The zucchini contains a lot of water, so it imparts moisture to the starchier vegetables, and as a result, the yams and sweet potatoes remain moist and tender.
Please don’t be intimidated by the beauty of this dish. It’s actually really easy to make. It just takes a little time to cut up the vegetables and arrange them in the baking dish. If you’re using a mandoline to cut the vegetables, please use the guard; mandolines are very sharp! If you don’t have a mandolin, a knife will work just fine.
I would recommend trying to find vegetables that are around the same size in diameter, so that everything cooks evenly. I would also suggest brushing the sides of the baking dish with a little olive oil for easy clean up afterwards.
Once you have arranged the vegetables in the dish, brush them with the remaining olive oil and sprinkle with salt. I warmed the olive oil on low heat and added some garlic, shallot and thyme to develop more flavour, but you can skip this step if you want.
Then cover the dish with aluminium foil and cook it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven. Add the garlic, shallot, pepper and herbs. Cook uncovered for another 25 minutes or until fork tender.
Enjoy!
Roasted vegetables
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 shallot sliced
- 4 cloves of garlic, cut in half
- 2 sprigs of thyme leaves
- 2 zucchini, sliced thinly (1/4 inch slices)
- 3 yams, peeled and sliced thinly (1/4 inch slices)
- 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly (1/4 inch slices)
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste (Optional)
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Prepare a 9X9 inch baking dish.
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Put the olive oil in a small pan. Add the sliced shallot, garlic and thyme. Cook on low heat just until the garlic and shallot start to soften. Remove from heat.
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
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Slice the vegetables.
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Brush the sides of the pan with olive oil.
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Arrange the vegetables in your desired pattern.
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Brush the tops of the sliced vegetables with olive oil. Do not add the garlic and shallot yet.
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Cover with aluminium foil.
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Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
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Remove from the oven. Add the garlic, shallot and thyme. Sprinkle with a little pepper if you wish. Cook for another 25 minutes uncovered, or until fork tender.