Summer Vegetable Tian

Tonight, we made a vegetable bake with some coucous. The lesson that I learned was how to cut vegetables (and a fruit)! Will taught me the art of cutting a tomato which, in my opinion, is the most challenging thing in the world to cut. Okay, maybe just in the fruit/veggie family that I've attempted before, but still. The others we did were potatoes, carrots, and a zucchini. I also rediscovered the joy of peeling a potato-great for the first half of it, hard to grip for the second half!






The dinner involved slicing these veggies up and then neatly organizing them on a pan to bake covered for 30 minutes. We then sprinkled parmesan over them and baked it uncovered another ten minutes to achieve a delicious and healthy tasting dinner! A little couscous on the side never hurts.

So while Will made the majority of the dinner tonight, I am working on perfecting the art of cutting things. It's a slow process and I'm pretty sure Will just wants to do it for me, but he is being patient so far with my bad habits and SLOW cutting.




Cooking Notes: You can really use any vegetables you want for this as you can see we did! I've included the original recipe here.

Summer Vegetable Tian (adapted from Budget Bytes; serves 4)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1 medium zucchini
1 medium squash
1 potato
1 tomato
1 tsp dried thyme
Salt & pepper
1 cup shredded Italian cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dice onion and mince garlic. Saute both in a skillet with olive oil until soft. Slice the rest of the vegetables while sauteing onion and garlic. Spray inside of an 8x8 square baking dish with non-stick spray. Spread the softened onion and garlic on the bottom of the dish. Place the thinly sliced vegetables in the dish vertically, in an alternating pattern. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, and thyme. Cover dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil, top with cheese, and bake another 15-20 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.

Recipe: Budget Bytes: Summer Vegetable Tian