Smokey Roasted Eggplant
Serves: 2
Time: approx 60 minutes
Eggplant - I find that people either love or dislike it. This roasted eggplant recipe is super tasty, so if you’re a bit impartial to eggplant this just might be the dish that sways you.
Leftovers for Lunch
There is half an eggplant each leftover for lunch, everything else is the same.
What you'll need
3 medium eggplants
2 cups quinoa
200g cranberries
1/2 cup flaked almonds
1/2 bunch of kale
1/3 bunch parsley
1/2 bunch of mint
1 cup yoghurt
1 lemon
1 clove garlic
From the pantry
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon tahini
1/4 cup olive oil (plus extra)
salt and pepper
Feeding Four
All you need to make this stretch for dinner for four is 1 extra large eggplant.
Prep and Cook
Cook to Feel
I say this a lot but cooking is a lot to do with feel and making decisions. You can't always follow the recipe to a T. Eggplant can take an amazingly large amount of oil depending on size and age, so if you think it looks dry at the beginning, then it will also cook dry and look dry at the end no matter how much oil it eventually releases. Trust yourself if you think it needs more oil then add it, you won't hurt it.
Preheat oven to 200 c
Cook Quinoa
Rinse quinoa in a sieve under running cold water.
Combine quinoa with 4 cups of water and a pinch of salt and bring up to the boil.
Continue to boil until the water is almost gone and the quinoa looks like it has large bubble craters.
Remove the pot from the heat, cover with a lid and leave to steam.
Cook Eggplant
Cut eggplants in half length ways, then slice criss cross lines roughly a couple of centimeters deep into the flesh.
Peel and finely crush garlic clove and combine in a small cup with 1/4 cup of olive oil.
Use a pastry brush to very generously spread over the flesh of each eggplant until all the eggplants have been completely covered. Leave to soak in. Drizzle with more oil if the eggplants are looking dry.
Very generously sprinkle each eggplant with smoked paprika so that they are really well covered. Season with sea salt flakes and cracked pepper.
Place in the oven to roast for 45 minutes; check after 10 minutes to see if they need more oil (eggplant can take a considerably large amount of oil so it’s good to check earlier rather than later).
Mix Yoghurt
Combine yoghurt, tahini and the juice of 1 lemon with salt and pepper and mix till smooth.
Toast Flaked Almonds
Place almonds on a small oven tray and toast in the oven for 8 minutes stir once during cooking.
Wash and Pick Herbs
Wash the parsley and mint and pick off just the leaves.
Cook Kale
Strip kale off the stalk and roughly shred, then toss with a teaspoon of salt.
When your eggplant has only 5 minutes to go, add the kale to the pan. Use your tongs to work it round a touch and use up some of that excess oil.
Plate it Pretty
Remove the lid from the quinoa and fluff up with a fork, sprinkle with sea salt flakes.
Place 1 eggplant on each plate, drizzle over with yogurt and top with a couple of tablespoons of quinoa. Sprinkle with almonds, fresh herbs and some cranberries.
Stack another eggplant across the first and repeat the steps above.
Save remaining quinoa for the green goddess salad.
Enjoy!
Lunch tomorrow
Lunch is exactly the same but you only have 1 half eggplant each so go heavier on the quinoa.