Perfect as a main dish or a side dish to accompany a salad or tagine. These ras-el-hanout spiced aubergines are  so delicious drizzled with a creamy tahini dressing, I make my own tahini but a good quality shop bought one is fine.

Serve with a crunchy blend of dukkah – the irresistable North African spice mix. The pomegranate seeds bring a beautiful pop of colour and a hint of sweetness…

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 Aubergines

A good pinch of ras-el-hanout

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Sea salt

Tahini dressing

2 tablespoons tahini (room temp)

2 tablespoons water

Juice 1 lemon

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon honey

½ tsp salt

Seeds of ½ pomegranate

Fresh Mint leaves and parsely

1 tablespoon pre-made dukkah

(Or to make your own: 3 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted 3 tbsp hazelnuts, toasted 1 tbsp cumin seeds, toasted, 2 tsp fennel seed, toasted, 2 tsp coriander seed, toasted ½ tsp dried chilli ½ tsp salt – grind in a pestle and morter)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Slice the aubergine in half lengthways. Lay the aubergine flesh side up on a baking tray, slice diagonally 1 cm deep into the aubergine in a criss cross pattern. In a bowl, mix half of the ras-el-hanout spice with the garlic powder and 1-2 tablespoons olive oil and spread over the aubergine. Sprinkle over a pinch of sea salt. Place in the oven for 20-25 mins until soft turning them over halfway through cooking.
2. While the aubergines are roasting make the tahini dressing, mix the water into the tahini to loosen, then mix in all the remaining dressing ingredients.
3. Place the roast aubergines onto a serving plate and drizzle with the tahini dressing and Scatter over generously the dukkah, then spoon around the pomegranate seeds and the freshly chopped herbs