Roasted eggplant fattoush

With the last few weeks of my pregnancy, the baby has been taking up valuable tummy space to the point I've can't really fit in big meals. So it has been all about salads. I love Middle Eastern food and the fresh flavours with Lebanese bread.

The two flavours I love most are eggplant and fattoush so why not add these together. The dressing is so good with the sweet and sour notes from the pomegranate molasses and lemon, you'll want to make big match to pour over your salad.

I first made up this salad to have with the Uyghur style lamb skewers. Probably a little too filling to have both the skewers and the roasted eggplant but nonetheless it was delicious.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 medium eggplant
2 tbs olive oil
pinch of salt

1 piece of Lebanese bread
1 tbs olive oil

Salad
1 tomato roughly sliced
1 cucumber roughly sliced
50g feta broken up
1/2 bunch mint leaves
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley leaves
1/4 bunch basil leaves

Dressing
2 tbs pomegranate molasses
juice of half lemon
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp za'atar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

2. Place eggplant on a baking paper lined tray and drizzle with 2 tbs oil with a sprinkling of salt.

3. Roast eggplant for 40 minutes until tender and set aside to cool.

4. Drizzle oil over Lebanese bread and bake in oven for 8-10 minutes until crisp and golden.

5. Roughly tear bread and set aside.

6. Add tomato, cucumber into a bowl with the mint, basil, parsley leaves and baked Lebanese bread.

To make the dressing
7. Add cumin, za'atar, molasses, lemon juice, 2 tbs oil into a jar and shake until emulsified.

8. Drizzle dressing on the salad.

Handy hint

Za'atar is available at supermarkets used in marinades, salads and dressings. I prefer the taste of za'atar with the hints of thyme, oregano, marjoram, toasted sesame seeds, salt and sumac. Sumac alone is too tart tasting for me.

Pomegranate molasses can be found at Harris Farm supermarket.

I also love this salad with Ughur lamb skewers.

Eggplant sang choy bow

The last few days of Frugal February are here and I even managed to get hubby onboard. He made a delicious fruit salad compote with no sugar which went perfectly with a few large spoonfuls of icecream that the kids and I devoured. 

Still in theme of Chinese New Year, I wanted something with eggplant as I've always eaten sang choy bow but have never attempted to try it. I always find that I would have this dish and be full before continuing on with the banquet at my fave Chinese Restaurant. I must say the result is pretty good and I made enough to have again the second night.

 Serves 4

Ingredients

1 iceberg lettuce

1 eggplant diced into 1cm cubes
1 cup of rice bran oil

2 tsp rice bran oil
3 shallots (white part only) finely sliced
2 tsp of freshly finely chopped ginger (typically a knob of ginger as big as your thumb)
1 red chilli sliced finely 
500g pork mince
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp Szechuan pepper
227g can water chestnuts drained and chopped
2tbsp chopped coriander leaves

Method

1. Peel 8 lettuce leaves and trim if need be to make into large cups
2. Heat 1 cup of oil in a wok on high
3. Add eggplant pieces and cook for 4mins turning these over. Remove from oil then place onto paper towel lined plate.
3. Remove oil but retain 2 tsp of oil for the next part
4 Stir fry shallots, ginger and chili for 1-2 minutes
5. Add pork mince and cook for 5mins until colour changes
6. Add hoisin, szechuan pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil and water chestnuts.
7. Continue to stir fry for another 2-3 minutes
8. Transfer into a serving bowl and stir though the coriander
9. Arrange lettuce cups on a platter, spoon a little of the pork mix into each leaf and serve

Handy hints

Great to make big batches to have handy for quick meals.
My kids love this dish so much so we are fighting over the last spoonful of the eggplant mince mix

Eggplant with yoghurt sauce

Eggplants have always been a favourite vegetable of mine. Even more so, after you make this dish. Trust me after the first bite you'll be in food heaven.

I've been cooking my way through Yotam Ottolenghi's book, 'Plenty' that I bought for my other half, Pepe. I have enjoyed it so much so, that it has been a vegetarian dinnerfest for the past week in my household and so far no cravings for meat. Pepe has had no complaints probably due to this the result of losing weight to fit into his ski pants for a skiing trip with the lads later this month.

This recipe has been adapted from Ottolenghi's cookbook as I was missing a couple of ingredients but I found that that didn't seem to matter with the end result. You'll have to try the eggplant with yoghurt sauce for yourselves.

Serves 2 as a starter or main

Ingredients

1 large eggplant
80mL olive oil
6 sprigs of lemon thyme leaves
1 pomegranate
salt and black pepper

Sauce

100g Greek yoghurt
1.5 tablespoons of olive oil
1 garlic clove
pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

2. Cut the eggplants lengthwise. Then use a sharp knife to make 4 parallel incisions in the cut side of the eggplant without cutting through the skin. Repeat on a angle to get diamond shaped patterns.

3. Place eggplants cut side up on a baking paper lined tray.

4. Brush with olive oil until all absorbed.

5. Sprinkle lemon thyme and salt and pepper.

6. Roast in the oven for 35-40mins until nicely browned.

7. Then remove from oven to cool down completely (or else you'll a melted yoghurt sauce) and hang onto the roasted lemon thyme.

8. Whilst eggplants are in the oven, prepare the pomegranate and sauce. Cut pomegranate into two, hold cut side half in your palm and tap the back with a wooden spoon til the seeds starting spilling out through your fingers. Pick out white skin and membrane.

9. For the sauce, whisk all the ingredients together, taste for seasoning and keep cold til needed.

10. To serve spoon the yoghurt sauce over the eggplant sprinkle the roasted lemon thyme and garnish with lots of pomegranate seeds. Finish off with a drizzle olive oil.