This beautiful vegan tian is easy to make and an eye-catching Summer side dish everyone will love! It’s rich in flavors, nutritious and is sure to impress any guests!
Once zucchini, summer squash and eggplant are in full swing, you need to make this baked vegetable ratatouille!
Thinly sliced, nicely arranged and baked until tender in aromatic herbs, it’s everything we want a veggie-forward dish to be.
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Even though our vegan tian looks impressive, it requires only 10 minutes of prep time and it’s so easy to make you can even let the kids help!
It’s a great veggie side dish featuring plentiful summer vegetables and lots of herbs. If you like it, be sure to try our colorful Pad Thai salad, vegetable croquettes and collard wraps next!
What is tian?
The term tian is often used for a French vegetable casserole, but a tian is actually a round baking dish filled with layered, overlapping vegetables and a fragrant sauce — similar to the better-known ratatouille.
Whereas vegan ratatouille is made of chopped vegetables that are cooked on the stove, summer vegetable tian calls for very similar ingredients that are layered systematically in a baking dish and prepared in the oven.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Family-friendly & fun to make
- Loaded with fresh aromatic herbs
- Combines big flavor with simplicity
- Low-calorie and low-fat
- Accessible, easy & customizable
- Nutritious, colorful and rich in taste
Seasonal produce and simple preparation are keys to letting individual ingredients shine in this minimalistic and flavorful vegetable-forward side dish!
Find tips for a quicker stovetop version below.
Ingredients needed
- Eggplant, Zucchini & Tomatoes — thinly sliced and layered in a beautiful pattern, they form the colorful base of our vegan tian.
- Tomato Sauce — this is where the summer vegetables are being cooked.
- Thyme & Herbs de Provence — these herbs add a good punch of flavor and can be swapped for anything from basil to oregano or an Italian herb mix.
Seasonal summer vegetables are the star of this simple baked ratatouille but you can make this year-round as a side dish.
How to make vegan tian
- Slice your vegetables into thin slices using a sharp knife or mandoline. They don’t have to be perfect by any means, just around the same thickness.
- Get a medium-sized baking dish, preferably round.
- Cover the bottom with tomato sauce. Then, start layering your sliced vegetables on top of it!
- Create a beautiful pattern out of your seasonal vegetables by alternating between them.
- Season with herbs, salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil if you like!
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until the vegetables become soft and fragrant.
Ratatouille stovetop method
In a hurry? Just prepare this easy ratatouille on the stove instead. That’s actually the traditional way of making vegetable ratatouille!
Place a large pot over medium heat and add all of your roughly chopped seasonal veggies into it. Cover with tomato sauce and add spices.
Cook for around 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, so it doesn’t burn, then serve warm!
Storage & serving suggestions
Serve your tian warm out of the oven alongside your favorite filling sides like risotto, mashed potatoes, quinoa or herbed millet!
Other ideas include tabbouleh, focaccia and French bread.
Any extra vegan ratatouille should be stored in a sealed container in the fridge where the flavors can develop even more. You can eat the leftovers over the next 3 days and reheat them at your convenience in a microwave!
If you want to store it for up to 3 months, place your ratatouille in the freezer in a freezable airtight container and reheat when you want to enjoy it.
Tips & FAQs
Which vegetables can you use for tian
You can use either the exact ingredients we chose for our recipe below or freestyle with whatever seasonal ingredients you find at the store or market! Here are some ideas.
- Zucchini
- Summer squash
- Eggplant
- Bell pepper
- Onion
- Tomatoes
- Beets
- Potatoes
Add some cheesiness
We kept this tian veggie-forward but we love adding some vegan cheese to it, too!
Throughout our website, we’ve shared a couple of different vegan cheese sauce recipes: a cashew-based one in our potato casserole and a high-protein cheese sauce for lasagna!
Vegan parmesan or almond ricotta also tastes lovely with ratatouille.
Budget tips
Whatever vegetable is currently in season and abundantly available, get a large batch and make it the star of your tian! The surplus of late-summer produce works wonderfully here.
If you want to save a buck or two, visit your local farmer’s market just before it closes because many items are usually available for a discount then.
More veggie-rich recipes
Do you like to serve veggies for lunch or dinner? We have a lot of simple, tasty and easy-to-make plant-based recipes on the blog that you can try next.
Did you make our vegan tian and like it? Share with us in the comments below and don’t forget to rate the recipe. You can Pin it here.
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp tomato paste
- ½ medium eggplant 8.5 oz / 240 g, thinly sliced
- 1 zucchini 10 oz / 300 g, thinly sliced
- 2 medium tomatoes thinly sliced
- 1 medium red onion thinly sliced
- 1 tsp thyme dry
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400° F (200 °C) and get a medium-sized baking dish.
- In a small bowl, mix the tomato paste with ¾ cup of water, then pour it onto the bottom of your dish. Layer the sliced eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes and onion on top, constantly alternating between them to create a colorful pattern. Generously season with salt, pepper and thyme.
- Place in the oven to roast for around 30-40 minutes until the veggies soften up and turn golden-brown.
- Remove the vegan tian from the oven and serve as a healthy Summer side dish!
- Any leftovers can be stored in a container for about 3 days in the fridge then reheated in the oven or microwave.
Notes
- You can use bell peppers, potatoes, zucchini, eggplant or summer squash for this recipe.
- Either thinly slice your veggies with a sharp knife or use a mandolin.
- Feel free to sprinkle with some vegan parmesan or add some plant-based cheese sauce before baking.
- You can also add a drizzle of olive oil on your layered vegetables before baking them.
My college student made this dish and said it was very tasty. The presentation was beautiful. However, the eggplant was a little under done while the other vegetables were finished. Do you have a suggestion on how to fix? Thank you.
this hasn’t happened to me before but you might want to try and slice the eggplant a bit thinner than the rest of the ingredients to ensure everything’s well-cooked!
I followed the recipe pretty much as is and it turned out great. My eggplant and tomato were much bigger than the squashes, but it still looked pretty. I made it with couscous (with the flavorings of the recipe).
This is more delicious than I would have imagined! Thank you!
Absolutely delicious – moreso than I imagined! I’m so happy to have found you! I can’t wait to make more dishes of yours!
so glad to read that! Thanks for the wonderful feedback :)
I adore your recipes because not only they are vegan and delicious but they are actually whole food vegan so healthy for you, it’s something that I can cook for my (future) kids and never worry about too much oil, too much sugar etc because your recipes are super balanced. Thank you Alena!
aww, your words just brightened my day! Thank you so much, really appreciate this feedback ♡