Farmers markets, roadside stands and bins in the grocery store are full of the ripe ingredients that combine to make recipes from La Tartine Gourmande, a new cookbook from Beatrice Peltre that emphasizes fresh, organic and seasonal cooking. The book itself features everything I like in a collection of recipes: simple directions, straightforward lists of ingredients, and beautiful photographs, thanks to the pictures taken by the author herself. If you’re looking for Meatless Monday casseroles, start here.

The recipes include breakfast, lunches, dinners and desserts “to inspire.” They’re as beautiful to look at as they are delicious to taste. And many of them, like the vegetable “tian” described below, offer a perfect alternative to meat on Meatless Monday or any day.

Serve your tian with a fresh green salad tossed with a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of red wine vinegar, a sprinkling of sea salt and a twist of cracked pepper. If your diet is gluten free, take another 5 minutes to make some whole-grain couscous. Otherwise, use a slice of whole grain bread to sop up the juices left in the bottom of your dish.

Summer Vegetable Tian

The following recipe serves 4. If that’s all you need, you can still double up and freeze what you don’t eat, or cover and serve again later in the week.

By the way, a “tian” is a dish from the south of France. It features layers of summer vegetables baked slowly in a low-temperature oven so that the flavors and scents of all the vegetables combine without losing their individual taste. I first tried it at a neighbor’s dinner party. As delicious as it was the day it was cooked, my neighbor said it was even more flavorful the next day when the left-overs were re-heated.

 Ingredients (serves 4)

1 tablespoon chopped lemon thyme or regular thyme

1/4 cup chopped basil

5 garlic cloves minced

2 Italian eggplants (280 g; 10 oz), sliced into thin rounds

Sea salt

olive oil

2 zucchini (400 g; 14 oz), thinly sliced (use a mandoline if you have one)

3 to 4 ripe tomatoes (550 g; 19 1/2 oz), thinly sliced

2 fennel bulbs, thinly sliced (280 g; 10 oz) (use a mandoline if you have one)

Pepper

Here’s What You Do:

1) In a small blowl, combine the chopped herbs and garlic.

2) Place eggplant slices in colander. Sprinkle with sea salt., then let rest for 30 minutes to release moisture. Pat dry with paper towels.

3) Preheat oven to 320 degrees F (160 degrees C).

4) Brush large oven dish (like a casserole dish, not a cookie sheet) with oil. Layer veggies in this order: 1 layer tomatoes, 2 layers zucchini, 1 layer eggplant, 1 layer fennel, adding some of the chopped herbs and garlic between each layer. Repeat until all the veggies are gone. Sprinkle with salt and pepper; drizzle generously with oil. Now you’ve made a tian.

5) Bake the tian in the oven. The recipe says to cook for around 1 hour 30 mins, until the veggies are tender when pierced with a fork (you may need to cover the dish if the vegetables are getting crisp rather than tender). If you are serving the the tian the same night you make it, my neighbor recommends cooking it an extra 30 mins for more flavor, though I have to say, this recipe was absolutely delicious prepared as is.

Enjoy!

MORE MEATLESS MONDAY RECIPES

Meatless Monday: Here’s How You Can Do It

Meatless Monday: Gazpacho

How About These Veggie Burgers?

MORE VEGETARIAN COOKBOOKS

In addition to the wonderful Tartine Gourmande, we’ve pulled together a list of several other terrific cookbooks that will make it easy for you to go meatless on Mondays. You can find them in our Amazon store here.

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