It's No Myth Seasonal Summer Briam
To honor Jason and the Argonauts and seasonal eats, here’s a briam — a Greek casserole of summer veggies. Many traditional recipes are oil guzzlers (fancy that). This has less oil but loads of flavor from the vegetables themselves, and the produce and time does the work for you. Crusty on top, juicy on the bottom, it’s good over brown rice, quinoa or with crusty bread for soaking up sauce. Serve with a Greek — or any — salad.
Ingredients
- 1 15- ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons olive oil plus divided use
- 4 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 lemon
- 1 pinch of cinnamon
- 1 potato sliced
- 1 onion sliced
- 1 red pepper sliced
- 1 zucchini sliced
- 1 eggplant sliced
- sea salt and pepper to taste
- 1 handful fresh chopped parsley
- 1 handful fresh chopped oregano
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425.
- In a small bowl, mix together diced tomatoes, tomato paste, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, chopped garlic, pinch of cinnamon and the juice of 1 lemon.
- In a deep casserole or pie pan, arrange potato slices in a single layer. Spoon roughly 1/3 cup of the tomato sauce on top. It will not cover the potato slices entirely. Don’t worry.
- Top with sliced onion. Repeat with 1/3 cup sauce.
- Continue layering with sliced red pepper and sauce, zucchini and sauce and eggplant, topping with remaining sauce.
- Drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, season with sea salt and pepper and bake for 30 minutes.
- Top with chopped parsley and oregano.
- Good hot or room temperature. Keeps covered and refrigerated for days.