The best home cooked meals are often not meticulously finished culinary creations, but rather playful dishes with beautiful ingredients and a high appetite level. If they look very tasty while it feels like the preparation did not take too much effort, the mission is accomplished. Recipes that are definitely examples of this category are those of Yotam Ottolenghi. His secrets are simplicity, rich flavors, fresh products and lots of possibilities to vary with.
Eggplants are the stars of our dish this time. Thanks to their fleshy structure they are perfect for vegetarian preparations and although it sounds a bit contradictory, the taste can be described as both neutral and rich. They combine well with elements of the Mediterranean and North-African cuisine, with their spicy and tangy keys.
Pomegranates are another beautiful product. The seeds add freshness and bite with a subtle acidity. This way rich ingredients like feta, combined with pomegranate, keep their strong flavors without making the entire dish taste bluntly.
Ingredients
- 2 eggplants
- 1 pack of feta cheese
- Seeds of 1/2 pomegranate
- Chopped herbs or leaf vegetables of own choice (e.g. parsley, watercress, rocket) or cress (e.g. Sakura Cress)
- Olive oil
- Za’atar, Dukkah or Moroccan spices
- Fleur de sel
- Freshly grind pepper
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 225°C.
- Cut the eggplants along the long edge in two pieces. Sprinkle with salt. Allow to rest for half an hour and pat dry with paper towels.
- Season the eggplants with the Za’atar, Dukkah or Moroccan spices, and drizzle generously with olive oil.
- Grill the eggplants in the oven for about 40 minutes. The structure needs to be soft without becoming mushy.
- Crumble the feta over the eggplants.
- Sprinkle with the pomegranate seeds and the chopped herbs.
- Drizzle again generously with olive oil.
