Briam
A Greek tray bake of potatoes, courgettes, aubergine, onion and tomatoes roasted in olive oil and herbs.
Photograph credit: Briam (lead image of the el.wikipedia article on briám) by Dianeira · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Briam is a dish of summer, when the courgettes and aubergines are at their best and the tomatoes are too ripe to eat plain. Everything goes into one dish with olive oil and herbs, and the oven does the rest.
Cut the vegetables into thick slices or chunks about the same size, so they cook together. Potatoes take the longest, so slice them a little thinner than the rest. Do not skimp on the olive oil. It carries the flavour and stops the vegetables drying out.
Layer them loosely in a roasting dish, not packed, and pour over the tomatoes. Cover with foil for the first part of the bake so the vegetables steam and soften. Then take it off to brown.
Briam tastes better warm than hot. Serve with crusty bread to mop up the oily tomato juices. Any summer vegetables work. The dish is also good cold the next day, with a spoonful of yoghurt and a piece of bread.
How to Make Briam
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Heat the oven to 200°C / 390°F (180°C / 355°F fan).
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Mix the potatoes, courgettes, aubergine, onion and garlic with the tomatoes, oil, oregano, salt and pepper in a large roasting dish.
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Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
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Remove the foil, stir, and bake for 30 minutes more until the vegetables are tender and browned at the edges. Scatter with the parsley.
A Few Pointers
- Cut the potatoes slightly thinner than the other vegetables.
- Keep the foil on for the first half of the cooking time.
- Stir once, after the foil comes off.
- Add a splash of water if the dish looks dry under the foil.
Swaps and Variations
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
- Fresh herbs work in place of the dried oregano at roughly three times the quantity — a teaspoon of dried is about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped.
Pairs Well With
Crumbled feta · Crusty bread · Grilled fish · Roast chicken
Storage
Keeps in the fridge for 3 days. Good cold or reheated.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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