The end of summer gives us the aubergine or eggplant. It is a vegetable I rarely cook as I find it a tasteless sponge requiring a lot of olive oil and seasoning. But I like a challenge so I created this recipe and I love the Middle-Eastern flavours in my recipe, it reminds me of the glorious food I had in Tel Aviv.
Pomegranates are in season now too and their juicy seeds bring tartness to this dish as well as the sour cream brings some richness.
I used very little olive oil to keep the dish light and fresh. I didn’t use any garlic ( as you know I don’t digest it so I don’t ever cook with it), feel free to add.
TIPS:
- For a Mediterranean taste: replace the za’athar spice blend with herbs de Provence spice blend and the tahini by roasted garlic.
- For an Asian taste: replace the za’athar spice blend with ground ginger and the tahini by miso.
- You can add dried or fresh rose petals for a floral flavour touch.
- Sunflower seeds can be replaced by pumpkin seeds or pine nuts.
- Pomegranate can be replace by sun-dried cherry tomatoes (see my recipe here)
- For a vegan version, omit the sour cream.
My roasted aubergine with tahini sour cream and pomegranate
Yield 6 portions
Ingredients
- 3 medium aubergine ( eggplant)
- 1 pomegranate
- 2 tablespoons za'athar spice blend
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, gold and /or black
- 3 tablespoons tahini
- 20 cl sour cream
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons sunflower seeds
- salt
Instructions
- Slice the aubergines in 2 lengthwise and score them criss-cross. Brush with tahini and olive oil, season with salt and za'athar spice blend. Grill face down for a few minutes, just long enough to char them.
- Roast them in a pre heated oven at 180C for 20 minutes, remove and add brush them with a little olive oil and continue roasting for 10 minutes, till the aubergines are cooked through but still hold their shape.
- Add to the sour cream, 1 tablespoon of tahini and season with salt and za'athar spice blend. De-seed the pomegranate.
- Serve the aubergine hot out of the oven, top with a tablespoon of cream mixture, some more tahini, pomegranate seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds.
Notes
on www.leeksandhighheels.com by Sandra Slawinski
Written and photographed by Sandra Slawinski without commercial deals. I used my baking tin from Ikea, my plates from Zarahome home.
