Roasted Vegetable Flower

This delicious side dish (or veggie main course) is based on a recipe for a Vegetable Tian from Martha Stewart Living. It contains savory sauteed leeks (like onions) spread in the bottom of a pie plate or deep round dish, with sliced veggies arranged like petals on top. You can change up the veggies, but we used zucchini, yellow squash, plum tomatoes and eggplant. (Yes, many of your kids like eggplant!) These veggies work very well -- but also try small red potato slices and/or mushrooms. It's easier than it sounds, and looks gorgeous! The kids made them very quickly once the order of the colored "petals" was established.

6-8 servings

Dinner

These slices made up the “petals” of the flower.

Flower formation — These slices made up the “petals” of the flower.

Ingredients

9″ round dish – oven-safe or microwave-safe
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 leek, well washed, quartered lengthwise, and cut into 1/4″ slices (white and pale green parts only)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
1 zucchini, unpeeled, very thinly sliced
1 yellow squash, unpeeled, very thinly sliced
3 plum (Roma) tomatoes, very thinly sliced
1 small eggplant, Italian or Asian(long and skinny) or 1 small regular eggplant, sliced thinly and then quartered
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh oregano, or other fresh or dried herbs such as basil or parsley
Optional: grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, unless you prefer to use the microwave.
Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add leek and garlic, and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Spread in the round baking dish and season with salt and pepper.
Arrange vegetable slices on top of leek mixture, using a round pattern of overlapping circles, alternating colors – for instance, zucchini, squash, tomato, eggplant.
Top with the vegetable or chicken broth and drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil. Bake 30 minutes in oven or microwave for 3 minutes. Drizzle with remaining oil, and bake or microwave until vegetables are tender, 3-5 minutes in microwave or 30 additional minutes in traditional oven.
Serve with Parmesan if desired.

More Information

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