Roast Aubergine with Sunflower Tahini
Roast Aubergine with Sunflower Tahini
Inspired by a recipe in our favourite cookbook of all time, Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi, this dish is very easy to throw together, looks great, and goes well with almost anything.Crispy fried onions or shallots can be bought from spice shops, or you can make your own - not an essential ingredient if you can't get it, feel free to substitute with some toasted almonds or something else thats crunchy and savoury.With all grilled aubergine recipes, put a bowl of water in the oven while baking to stop them drying out.
Servings 4
Ingredients
- 2 medium aubergines
- A splash olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1-2 red or green chillies
- A Handful basil leaves,
- half a handful Dill leaves
- Plain Yoghurt
- 1 handful crispy fried shallots
- salt and pepper
Sunflower tahini
- 1 cup Sunflower seeds
- Oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 230C. Place a bowl with water in the bottom of the oven - this stops the aubergine from drying out while roasting.
- Chop the aubs into slices about 1-1.5 cm thick, toss with some olive oil, salt and black pepper. Throw them onto a tray, try not to have too much overlap, and roast until golden-brown - about 30 minutes.
- Chop the stalk off the chillies and deseed either by rolling or with the back end of a teaspoon. Chop the garlic and chillies into slices and fry in a generous amount of oil until the garlic goes golden - don't overcook the garlic! Drain on kitchen paper.
- Roast the sunflower seeds - you can do this in the microwave, by putting them in for 30 second intervals, stirring, and repeating until they are golden brown and fragrant.Otherwise dry fry them in a saucepan, keeping them constantly moving until roasted to your liking - I like a dark roast, but it's up to you. Put the sunflowers into a nutribullet or similar high speed blender with enough oil to almost cover the seeds, and blitz into a paste.
- Arrange the aubergine slices in a serving platter, overlapping slightly, and wait for them to cool down slightly - then throw over your garlic and chilli, the basil leaves, the dill leaves, crispy onions, dot with yoghurt and drizzle lots of sunflower seed tahini on top.Serve warm, rather than hot or at room temperature.
