These mainstays of summer cooking are coming back into season, hurrah. Here are some excellent ways to make the most of a really versatile vegetable that does a lot of heavy lifting in my kitchen throughout the warmer months.
There’s one point I find is always worth repeating about aubergine — I think that the greatest stumbling block to delicious aubergine can be easily avoided in the cooking. Any firm bite left in aubergine is decidedly unappealing. It always needs to be cooked long enough that the centre is completely creamy and yielding. That’s not to say the outside can’t be wonderfully crisp or charred, of course. But if in doubt about cooking timings: more is more is more.
To salt or not to salt? Historically aubergines were fairly bitter, so it was a good idea to salt and rinse them before cooking to reduce this. But modern varieties are no longer unpleasantly bitter, so there’s really no need to do it for this reason. The only potentially desired effect of pre-salting is that it reduces the amount of oil needed in the cooking. And they really do soak up a lot of oil during cooking — you need to be very generous with it when roasting aubergine. But like, oil is delicious. So you do you there.
Recipe
Makes 2 portions
1 large aubergine
400g jar or tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
A really good pinch of cumin (seeds or ground)
1 tbsp washed, chopped mint, plus a few leaves to garnish
Quarter a red onion, finely sliced
1 lemon
1.5 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 tbsp runny honey
Crumbled feta to garnish (around 60g)
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
Place the onion in a small bowl, dress generously with salt and lemon juice and set aside
Heat oven to 190c / 375F fan
Prepare the aubergine — trim the stem off, cut into 8 wedges lengthways, then cut each wedges into 3 even pieces
In a large bowl toss together the aubergine, cumin, salt, pepper and plenty of olive oil. Transfer to a metal baking sheet (set the mixing bowl aside for later) and roast for around 20-25 mins, until golden and completely tender
Return the aubergine to the mixing bowl, stir in the honey and molasses. Return to the baking sheet and cook for 3-6 mins until the glaze has thickened
Meanwhile stir together the chickpeas, chopped mint, olive oil, a little lemon juice and salt to taste
Place the chickpeas in a serving bowl, top with the aubergine, onions (drained), feta and mint leaves
Recipe
Makes 4 portions
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