This Baked Zucchini recipe, called Zucchini Tian is made with layers of thinly sliced zucchini baked until meltingly tender with caramelized onions, garlic, tomatoes, seasoned with cumin and coriander.
It is one of my favorite dishes from childhood, one my Egyptian father would often make when having guests over – or as a vegan main, served over rice. Truth be told, he would never call it anything this fancy. To him, it was simply “baked squash”.
In our house, my dad was often in the kitchen alongside my mom. He loved to cook and had a way with vegetables, turning the simplest of ingredients into flavorful meals, often without the use of meat or dairy.
I believe he learned this from growing up in a small primitive Egyptian village, where food was scarce. They had to make do with what they had, creating flavor out of humble ingredients. He cooked with nothing but a good palate, practice and a little intuition. As an adult, even when he became moderately successful, he was always frugal, especially in the kitchen.
The story of how he ended up in Los Angeles, all the way from a tiny poverty-stricken, Coptic village in Egypt is one of my favorites. And it is the reason that I truly believe anything is possible for us in this life.
Baked Zucchini Tian | 60-second video
What is Zucchini Tian?
In my dad’s recipe, zucchini (or summer squash) is layered with caramelized onions, lots of garlic and a rustic homemade tomato sauce seasoned with cumin and coriander and lemon zest. It’s baked in the oven until succulent. When it comes out, drizzle it with olive oil and sprinkled it with fresh parsley.
It melts in your mouth. Over the years I’ve fiddled with it -adding goat cheese or parmesan or other vegetables, and while good, I always seem to prefer his basic vegan recipe. I hope you like it too.
What you will need:
- zucchini or summer squash
- onions, sliced
- olive oil
- garlic cloves
- Tomatoes
- Lemon
- salt, pepper and spices
- Italian parsley
How to Make Zucchini Tian:
Step One: Thinly slice onions into rounds, and caramelize in olive oil until succulent and golden.
Step 2: Add garlic and fresh tomatoes to make a rustic-style tomato sauce. Season with whole cumin seeds and coriander.
Step 4: Set aside 2/3 thirds of the sauce, leaving 1/3 in the skillet. Layer the zucchini and summer squash over top, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. It doesn’t have to look perfect.
Step 5: Add another third of the sauce.
Step 6: Add another layer of squash. Season with salt and pepper.
Step 8: Cover with foil (or a lid) and place in a hot oven for 40 minutes. Give a good shake, uncover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
More recipes you may like:
- Curried Zucchini Soup
- Zucchini Fritters with Feta and Dill
- Zucchini Cakes with Jalapeño and Lime
- Baked Zucchini with Garlicky Parmesan Breadcrumbs
- Zucchini Lasagna Roll Ups with Spinach & Basil
- Quick & Healthy Zucchini Basil Soup
Baked Zucchini Tian
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour 20 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: Vegan, Side dish,
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Baked Zucchini Tian with Middle Eastern Spices served over rice for a simple vegetarian meal, or as a delicious side dish. Meltingly tender, flavorful, healthy and vegan!
Ingredients
- 2 large onions, sliced
- 2 T olive oil
- 10 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 4 large tomatoes, diced
- 1 small Lemon – zest and 1 T juice
- 2 tsp cumin seeds (whole) or sub ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
- cracked pepper
- 2 lbs zucchini or summer squash- sliced into 1/4 inch disks
- 1/4 C chopped Italian parsley
Instructions
- In a 10 inch, heavy-bottomed, ovenproof skillet (cast iron works great), heat olive oil until hot on medium heat. Add onions and saute for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until golden brown and fragrant. Add garlic, stirring more frequently, until garlic is golden.
- Turn heat to med- low and add diced tomatoes, lemon zest and lemon juice, salt, pepper and spices. Simmer on low until tomatoes cook down a little, about 5 minutes. This will seem like a fairly “dry” tomato sauce, but remember, zucchini will release their liquids in while baking.
- Remove all but 1/3 of the rustic tomato sauce, placing 2/3 in a separate bowl.
- Spread the remaining tomato sauce (about 1/2 cup) evenly on the bottom of the pan. Place one single layer of zucchini in slightly overlapping concentric circles.
- Sprinkle with a generous pinch of kosher salt and pepper.
- Spread another third of the rustic tomato sauce over the zucchini, as evenly as possible. It won’t seem like a lot, but don’t worry.
- Add the second and final layer of slightly overlapping zucchini. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and the rest of the tomato sauce.
- Cover with foil. Place in 350 F oven for 40 minutes. Uncover and give a good shake, and bake uncovered for an additional 15 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with parsley and a give a good drizzle of olive oil.
Notes
Feel free to make this ahead and reheat.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 113
- Sugar: 9.9 g
- Sodium: 183.1 mg
- Fat: 3.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 19.3 g
- Fiber: 4.4 g
- Protein: 4.7 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
What a lovely recipe, thank you. Great for vegan or vegetarian friends. I added finely sliced green olives into the sauce, and added toasted almonds and fetta to the top. I added some vegan stock to the pot when it got a little dry. I served it over couscous with a side of garlicky yoghurt.
Sounds great Donna!
This dish has a lot of good flavor, and the next morning I chopped up some and and made a two eggs omelet with cheese. Sooo good
That sounds yummy! Glad you enjoyed.
Am definitely on for making “Baked Zucchini”. But what I really want is to read about your father’s story. Have to admit your amuse bouche had me geared up. My mother went from growing up in a rural quarry/cement factory in Guatemala finding her way to Sweden (I have a Swedish father) then finally Vancouver, Canada and yes, success.
Thank you for your wonderful recipes, stories and inspiring quotes.
Can’t leave out the lovely visuals.
Anna
Thanks Anna! Thanks for sharing about your mom. The journeys we humans take during our short lifetimes. Each one of us has a story, each one important!
Easy and DELICIOUS! Love the cumin seed.
Glad you enjoyed Bev!
I made this as a side dish to Hamam Mahshi. It was part of the “goodbye” diner that I cooked for my Egyptian fellow and his wife, from Tanta, after they had stayed three years over here. They appreciated the stuffed squab with freekeh but they loved the zucchini tian!! The wife begged me to give the recipe for it (and of course I did, including your website!). So thank you for this recipe.
Awwww… thanks so much; warms my heart!
I am hardly ever bowled over by recipes, but this is fantastic (and it smells amazing too, so it’s great for company)!
I am so glad you enjoyed this; one of my favorites too, that reminds me of home.
This was okay. Based on all of the comments, I think I will try it again at some point
What could have been different to improve it you think?
look at this!!!
Fantastic ! Simple but so delicious! Thanks for a great recipe.
Thanks Shannon!
This looks sooo good. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Melissa! Let us know what you think if you make it!
One of the best things I’ve ever eaten.
Awesome- I’m so glad you enjoyed this!
Very tasty and a great way to use up all those garden zucchini and tomatoes. Topped with a bit of feta and served with Sylvia’s Everyday Quinoa. Additional note: Garden tomatoes tend to be much juicier than store-bought variety and need much longer to cook down. I’m guessing that it took close to 30 minutes to reduce to the correct volume (around 1.5 cups total based on recipe description).
Thanks Mary!
While this takes a little more time than I usually allow on a week night, it was well worth it! I used zucchini from our garden which was huge so I couldn’t make round circles. But squares and triangles worked just fine and tasted great! I also topped mine with feta cheese and I thought this really added an additional great flavor. All the spices and lemon work so well with this recipe! I grilled up a side of salmon for some extra protein.
Glad you enjoyed this!
Excellent, SIMPLE AND SO tasty! We love it.
Great to hear!
This is a great dish with complex flavors; it was an all around hit! I sprinkled feta cheese on before baking. I used about 1 cup of the cooking liquid from the finished dish to make Israeli couscous as a side. We served it with grilled shrimp coated in an Indian spice rub, which was a great pairing.
My only confusion is that in the description you write that the dish includes coriander seeds and cumin. Later on and in the actual recipe you mention cumin seeds and ground coriander. I ended up using ground cumin and both whole and ground coriander, which worked well.
Opps- yes, I use ground coriander and whole cumin seeds.
Excellent! It was a hit!!
Thanks Karen- so glad you liked this!
Added shredded carrots over couscous and white beans
I followed your directions with the exception of adding feta cheese. Awesome balance of spices. Thank you.
Awesome! Glad you liked this!
Really tasty, served with white rice and black beans seasoned with cumin and paprika.
Thanks Lisa and happy you liked this! 🙌
Very good! Served over quinoa and the whole family loved it!
My husband and I made this over the weekend and LOVED it! Highly recommend. I’m so happy we made a lot of it and have leftovers 🙂
Made this dish last night, using cousa as the summer squash. It was exquisite.
Beautiful story and recipe. Will definitely try it this week. Thanks.
Made this last night Sylvia…it’s really great! So great that we had leftover for lunch straddled on a tofu steak made with smoked paprika and some cumin…and I am making another fresh batch to take to inlaws tonight…!
Thanks Jim, appreciate this!