9 Ottolenghi recipes to make you fall in love with aubergine (2024)

FAQs

How do you make aubergine tahini Ottolenghi? ›

Chop the aubergine flesh roughly and transfer to a medium mixing bowl. Add the tahini, water, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, garlic, parsley and some salt and pepper; mix well with a whisk. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more garlic, lemon juice or molasses if needed.

From this, Ottolenghi has developed a style of food which is rooted in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean traditions, but which also draws in diverse influences and ingredients from around the world.

In a large bowl, toss the eggplants with 4 tablespoons of oil, 3⁄4 teaspoon of salt, and a good grind of pepper. Spread the eggplants out in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking tray and roast, turning over halfway, until deeply golden and cooked through, 30 to 35 minutes. Set aside to cool.

What is the best way to cook aubergines? You can grill, fry, griddle, barbecue and bake aubergines as well as adding them to curries and casseroles. Famous dishes include ratatouille, caponata, moussaka, parmigiana, miso aubergine and imam bayildi.

Soak eggplant slices or cubes in milk for about 30 minutes before cooking. The milk not only tempers the bitterness, but it actually makes for eggplant that is extra creamy, since the vegetable acts like a sponge and soaks up a good amount of milk in its flesh.

Salting eggplant is often explained on two points: The first point contends that eggplants can be quite bitter, and salting helps cut the bitterness. (No, salt doesn't draw out bitterness. It just helps hide it.) Second, salting eggplants reduces the sponginess and leaves you with a creamy, silky texture.

Mixed Bean Salad

by Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi. from Jerusalem. Crisp and fragrant, this salad combines lemon, tarragon, capers, garlic, spring onions, coriander and cumin seeds to bring its base of of yellow beans, French beans, and red peppers to life.

The deli quickly gained a cult following due to its inventive dishes, characterised by the foregrounding of vegetables, unorthodox flavour combinations, and the abundance of Middle Eastern ingredients such as rose water, za'atar, and pomegranate molasses.

The guy's an omnivore but his recipes are overwhelmingly vegetarian and vegan. His vegetarian (not vegan) cookbook Plenty< spent years near the top of Britain's bestseller lists.

The white part of an eggplant, also known as the "flesh," can sometimes turn bitter when cooked due to the presence of a naturally occurring compound called solanine. Solanine is a glycoalkaloid that is found in many members of the nightshade family of plants, which includes eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers.

What happens if you don't salt eggplant before cooking? ›

It helps draw out moisture from the eggplant. You don't have to salt eggplant though, it depends on the texture your looking for. Salting gives it a more creamy texture when cooked and not salting helps the eggplant hold up and be a little firmer after cooked.

Grilled eggplant has a mild, bland and slightly bitter taste, similar to zucchini. Its hearty and fleshy texture is perfect for grilling making it a healthy and inexpensive side dish.

Next make the tahini sauce by whisking the tahini, 3 tablespoons of water and ¼ teaspoon of salt. The sauce will seize up at first, keep whisking until it relaxes and becomes light and fluffy. Add more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, if necessary; you want it smooth and pourable.

Put the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, half a teaspoon of salt and 100ml water in a small saucepan. Whisk to a smooth paste, then put on a medium-low heat and whisk in the yoghurt bit by bit, until the sauce starts to steam.

Tahini is simply sesame-seed butter, made by grinding hulled sesame seeds into a paste. Much of its makeup is carbohydrates, and when a small amount of juice (or any water-containing liquid) is added to tahini, a portion of each carbohydrate molecule is drawn to the water.

So, what's the difference between mutabal and baba ghanoush? Well, it seems that the big difference is the use of tahini: Mutabal calls for it, while Baba Ganoush doesn't. In addition, baba ganoush usually includes chopped vegetables, such as tomato, pepper, and garlic mixed with pomegranate molasses.