This is a firm favourite at the Soul Adventures retreats! Funnily enough though, Trish always said she was not a fan of aubergines…until I cooked them like this!

Perfect as a main dish for brunch or a side dish to accompany a salad or tagine. These baked aubergines are so delicious drizzled with a creamy tahini dressing – as I suggested, you may have some from yesterday to use here for this recipe.

Serve with a crunchy blend of dukkah – the irresistable North African spice mix (again, if you don’t have this spice blend feel free to use some chopped nuts and seeds). The pomegranate seeds bring a beautiful pop of colour and a hint of sweetness…

Tess’s Recipe Tip

If you make extra, allow them to cool and pop in a blender with extra tahini and some lemon juice – then this will turn into a fabulous baba ganoush dip (photo below).

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 aubergines

A good pinch of ras-el-hanout (Moroccan spice – if not, use cumin seeds and coriander seeds)

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Sea salt

Tahini dressing

*you may not need to make this from scratch if you have some from yesterday

2 tablespoons tahini (room temp)

2 tablespoons water

Juice 1 lemon

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon honey

½ teaspoon salt

Seeds of ½ pomegranate

Fresh mint leaves and parsley

1 tablespoon pre-made dukkah

Or to make your own large batch of dukkah: 3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted 3 tablespoons hazelnuts, toasted 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted, 2 tablespoons fennel seed, toasted, 2 tablespoons coriander seed, toasted ½ tablespoon dried chilli ½ tablespoon salt – grind in a pestle and morter. This keeps in a jam jar for months.

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, drizzle with the tahini dressing and scatter over generously the dukkah. Then spoon around the pomegranate seeds and the freshly chopped herbs.
4. I like to serve this with a green salad with fresh mint.

Bon Provecho!

Love Tess x