Why can’t vegetables be plentiful and yummy all year long? I don’t know, but I intend to enjoy them while they’re around. This Summer Vegetable Tian is the perfect easy side to showcase the medley of delicious vegetables the summer has to offer.
I like to enjoy the natural subtle flavors of vegetables. I’m not all for frying or smothering with thick, rich sauces, but sometimes I want something a little more. This Summer Vegetable Tian lands half way between both worlds. The vegetables are sliced thin, seasoned only with a little salt, pepper, and thyme, and then topped with just a small amount of flavorful cheese. Roasting the vegetables magnifies their flavor and gives them just a hint of sweetness. It’s veggietastic.
Creamy cheeses work really well with this dish but I happened to have a four cheese Italian blend on hand so I used that.
Summer Vegetable Tian
Servings 6Ingredients
- 1 medium yellow onion ($0.42)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.11)
- 1 medium zucchini ($0.75)
- 1 medium yellow squash ($0.56)
- 1 medium potato ($0.77)
- 1 medium tomato ($0.71)
- 1 tsp dried thyme ($0.10)
- Salt & pepper ($0.05)
- 1 cup shredded Italian blend cheese ($1.40)
- 1 Tbsp chopped parsley, optional garnish ($0.08)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Sauté the onion and garlic with olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until the onions are soft and transparent (about 5 minutes).
- While the onion and garlic are sautéing, slice the zucchini, yellow squash, tomato, and potato thinly (1/4-inch slices). Make sure the potatoes are very thin so that they soften quickly while in the oven.
- Coat the inside of an 8×8″ casserole dish with non-stick spray. Spread the sautéed onion and garlic in the bottom of the dish. Arrange the other sliced vegetables, stacked vertically like dominos, in an alternating pattern. Season the top of the vegetables generously with salt, pepper, and dried thyme.
- Cover the dish with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, top with the shredded cheese, and bake without the foil for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown. Top with chopped fresh parsley for garnish, if desired.
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Nutrition
How to Make a Vegetable Tian – Step By Step Photos
Begin by preheating the oven to 400ºF. Dice one yellow onion and mince two cloves of garlic. Sauté the onion and garlic with 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until soft and transparent.
Place the sautéed onion and garlic in the bottom of an 8×8 (or similar size) casserole dish.
Wash one potato, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomato to remove any dirt or debris.
Slice the vegetables into 1/4-inch thick slices. The tomato and potato had very large diameters compared to the squash, so I cut them in half before slicing to make them a more similar size.
Layer the potato, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomato in the dish over the onion and garlic in an alternating pattern. It doesn’t need to be pretty, just squeeze them in there any way you can.
Season the top of the vegetables generously with salt, pepper, and dried thyme. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven.
After baking for 30 minutes, remove the foil and top with about 1 cup of shredded Italian blend cheese. Return the Summer Vegetable Tian to the oven (without the foil) and continue to bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and golden brown.
Top with a little fresh chopped parsley for garnish, if desired.
Helllooooo gorgeous.
Original Photos
The best thing about this recipe is that it’s so simple. A coworker told me about it over a year ago and I’ve made it (and loved it) several times since- this is my first time actually seeing it “in print.” Thanks !! :)
Why do you recommend not using a mandolin to slice the vegetables? I use the mandolin a lot because it gives the most identical slices. By the way I’m making the recipe tonight but with sweet potatoes and eggplant along with the squash, zucchini,and tomato. I think it’ll be great.
It’s not that I don’t recommend it, but I don’t want to use it again myself. :) The one I have is extremely complicated, hard to clean, and scary sharp. I’d rather just slice them up real fast with my knife. You gotta do what works for you, though!
made this tonight; added leftover andouille sausage and it really added to it! next time i will double the cheese and add a bit of butter or olive oil over the veg before the initial baking.
I didn’t have any thyme and I didn’t have zucchini or squash, but I substituted all of those for Italian seasoning, frozen green and yellow beans, and frozen cauliflower and broccoli. This was SO GOOD. Thanks for posting! I plan on trying it with the real ingredients soon. :)
This. Is. AMAZING! I absolutely love vegetables, and this is just SO delicious. Only things I changed were adding more garlic to the onions, because, well duh, garlic!! And instead of thyme, I used italian seasoning. Otherwise, I did this just like the recipe, and I am in veggie heaven!!
This is so pretty. Now that my garden is planted I need all the veggie ideas I can get :)
Cooking time was longer than 30 added the 15 min for the cheese go melt. Though I sliced all the veggies equally, they cooked unevenly. Probably add 40-50 min cook time, and add more seasoning of your choice
I made this last night with light havarti. It was quite tasty!
Mine was pretty wet on the bottom, but that’s to be expected. Most people commenting seem to think it’s from the cheese, but that’s not why the “soup” happens.
When you cover and roast watery veggies like zucchini and tomatoes, this is what happens. The water seeps out when you cook them.
My dish was jam-packed with mandolin-thin slices – no chance for liquid to evaporate! Still it was fine. The potatoes cooked perfectly, and even crisped at the top a bit after removing the lid (the trick is not to double the slices, but to overlap/fan them out in that layer, kinda like holding poker cards – that way most surface area is exposed to the heat).
I enjoyed the leftovers for lunch today. I nuked them in the microwave. The top wasn’t as crispy today, but I didn’t mind.
Thanks for a solid, versatile recipe idea!
I made this tonight and it was easy and turned out just like your picture. I used a mexican cheese blend with some Parmesan on top since it’s what I had and it turned out great. I will try the italian blend next time. I was surprised at how easy this was to do and how pretty the final dish turned out. Thanks so much for posting your recipe – I loved it!
One word – YUMMY!! But I also added a slices of feta between the vegetables. mm..
This recipe, word for word, is on Foodgasms’ Facebook page with no credit to you. Thought you might want to know that!
Hello Beth! your site is great !!!
I’m new to cooking but using your recipes i do pretty good :)
The only thing that i would really love to see on your site is calories for every dish…. i see many yummy looking recipes with pasta or cheese (which i love)… but i really need to watch my diet :(
I would really appreciate if you add calories to your recipes per serving.
Thank you :)
This was so yummy! I used sweet potato as I didn’t have summer squash (not sure I have ever seen in here in Australia!) and danish feta & 3 cheese mix on top. Leftovers for lunch tomorrow – yum!
What is the trick with the potatoes? Is it just slicing them really thin? We tried this the other night and it is amazing, but the potatoes didn’t cook all the way, so we had to not eat them. We didn’t peel them either, does that matter?
Peeling shouldn’t matter, but yes, you do need to slice them thin. :)
That was GOOD! Thanks so much for the recipe! And so easy. I ended up using regular Parmesan from the can and it worked just as well. The kids really liked it too!