Baked Eggplant & Chick Peas in a Smoky Tomato Sauce
It's worth pan grilling the eggplant so you get an added smoky flavour to match the sauce, but if you don't have time (or a pan grill) you can cook the eggplant slices under an oven grill. You can control how spicy this is by the amount of chilli you use. I use my homemade sweet chilli sauce made with dates instead of sugar, but any type of heat will work.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 2 medium eggplants, cut lengthways into 1cm-thick slices
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- 4 fat garlic cloves, peeled and crushed or very finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger, or fresh ginger very finely chopped
- 1 green chilli, finely diced or 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce or 1 tsp chilli powder - depending how hot you want the dish
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses (can be replaced with 1 tbsp of soft brown sugar mixed with 1 tbsp lemon juice or 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar mixed with 1 tbsp date syrup)
- freshly ground sea salt & pepper
- Parmesan cheese for topping (optional)
- garnish with fresh herbs like flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped or mint leaves, roughly torn
- serve with couscous or rice or roasted vege salad
Method
- Preheat your grill or pan grill to its highest setting. Lightly brush both sides of the eggplant slices with olive oil and lay on the grill tray. Grill for 5-10 minutes on each side, until soft and well-browned. If using a pan grill, cook pieces until they're slightly charred on each side. Then set aside and make the tomato sauce.
- Heat oven to 180C or 160C fan.
- Heat a large pot to medium/high with a generous dash or two of olive oil then add the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, paprika and cumin, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent.
- Add the tomatoes, chickpeas and pomegranate molasses. Mix together and season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Bring to the boil and then let it simmer gently for 10 minutes.
- Place half the eggplant slices in a single layer at the bottom of a medium casserole dish. Pour half the tomato sauce over the slices, cover with the remaining eggplant and then pour over the remaining tomato sauce. Grate some parmesan cheese over the top if using and a squiggle of olive oil over the top to finish.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Serve hot from the casserole dish, garnished with parsley and mint leaves and enjoy!
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