I love aubergines and so do my family. I’ve been making Ottolenghi’s Bulgur with Tomato, Aubergine & Preserved Lemon Yoghurt a lot recently – we all love it. It’s great on its own, with lamb or chicken and even good sausages. But yesterday I thought it was really time to try something new with aubergines. 

While we think of aubergines as a vegetable, they are in fact fruits. With their black-purple skins and almost bland-looking creamy interiors, they’re not food we immediately associate with ‘healthy’ – brightly coloured vegetables and fruits are what we tend to think (rightly!) are good for us. But, in fact, aubergines have a lot to offer: they are rich in calcium, phosphorus, beta-carotene and folic acid; they’re said to clean blood and protect arteries from things like strokes (ref: The Food Doctor by Ian Marber & Vicki Edgson). Having said all that – and I do overall consider well what I eat – I don’t eat them for their nutrients, I eat them because I love them: simply grilled, in moussaka, Pasta Norma, tagines, fattoush, curry. 

My son was eating with me and I served the aubergine dish with some griddled chicken, roast potatoes and a green salad. It did occur to me that maybe a pilau or other grains might be better than roast potatoes. But it was Sunday, and I love roast potatoes, so that’s what we had and it worked well. I nearly always roast small salad potatoes now for their great taste and good texture, leaving the skins on and parboiling first, then coating in extra virgin olive oil.

I looked through a few cookbooks for aubergine recipes, but in the end came back to Ottolenghi’s Simple, which is one of my favourite books. So, thank you again to Ottolenghi. I did make slight changes and used only two aubergines instead of his three (to serve 4). But then I decided not to try to make two-thirds of all the other bits, and just kept some leftovers! I also used extra virgin olive oil as that’s all I ever have in my house, but Ottolenghi uses groundnut oil, so any light oil will do fine too. 

Roasted Aubergine with Curried Yoghurt

•  2 aubergines
• about 100ml extra virgin olive oil
• 200g Greek yoghurt
• 2 teaspoons medium curry powder
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric
• 1 lime: to give 2 tsp juice; 1 tsp zest
• 1 large or 2 medium onions (about 150g)
• 30g flaked almonds
• ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
• ½ teaspoon coriander seeds
• 40g pomegranate seeds
• salt and black pepper

 

Top and tail the aubergines. Use a vegetable peeler to cut off a thin layer of the skin in stripes so – as Ottolenghi says – it’s a bit like a zebra. Then cut each aubergine into thickish slices – about 2cm. 

Put about 4 tablespoons oil into a bowl with some salt and pepper. Tip the aubergine slices in and turn around to coat them, then lay them on a baking tray covered in greaseproof paper. Some of the slices weren’t completely coated so I brushed over a little more oil with a pastry brush to make sure all slices were properly oiled. 

 

Put into a 200 Fan oven (220C/Gas 7) for about half an hour until nicely browned. Ottolenghi put them in a hotter oven (220 Fan) for 45 minutes, but mine definitely didn’t need that long or that heat.

Meanwhile, make the curried yoghurt. Weigh 200g of Greek yoghurt into a bowl. Add 1 teaspoon curry powder, turmeric, lime juice and some salt and pepper. Mix well. Keep the lime zest for garnish at the end.

 

Finely slice the onion and put in a frying pan with 2 tablespoons oil. Cook over a medium heat, stirring frequently, until soft and starting to turn a golden-brown. Add the other teaspoon of curry powder, the almonds and a pinch of salt. Stir to mix well and continue to fry for about 2 minutes until the almonds start to brown a little.

 

Lightly dry-toast the cumin and coriander seeds in a small pan. Then lightly crush in a pestle and mortar. You don’t want them completely crushed to powder but to retain a little crunch and texture.

 

I found about half a pomegranate gave me 40g of seeds.

At this stage you can keep everything at the ready for when you want to eat. The dish is served at room temperature, not hot. 

I made this a bit earlier in the day yesterday and assembled it once the cooking for the rest of the meal was under way.

Lay the aubergine slices on a medium-large serving plate. Slightly overlap them.

Now spoon the curried yoghurt over the top. I didn’t use all of mine as I only cooked two aubergines and I put it in the middle and not right to the edge as I thought it looked nicer. Now spoon over the fried onion mix (again I didn’t use all mine). Then sprinkle over the crushed cumin and coriander seeds, top with the pomegranate seeds and sprinkle over the lime zest.

It looked fantastic and had the most gorgeous fragrant smell.

With the chicken, potatoes and green salad, it made a wonderful and special meal.

We didn’t eat all the aubergine but it’s patiently waiting in the fridge to be part of lunch today. I’m sure it’s going to taste just as good as yesterday!