Today’s recipe is a bit of a goodbye to one of my favourite late summer vegetables – aubergine, or eggplant, although I may be able to squeeze one more aubergine dish in before we part ways, as the season doesn’t truly finish until the end of October. I love the versatility of aubergine and its unique texture that lends itself to so many different preparation methods.
To my mind, aubergine’s infamous blandness is precisely its selling point as it takes on various flavours so readily. It’s no wonder that it’s such a popular vegetable in the cuisines of India, China, Middle East and Southern Europe. It’s delicious baked, slow-cooked, wok or pan-fried. It makes mean curries, bakes, casseroles, warm salads, dips, stir-fries and today I’ve roped it in to make some vegan meatballs. Not only are they good for you as they contain no actual meat, but they are entirely made up of so-good-for-you wholefood plant foods that we should incorporate into our life daily. They are made of diabetes and hypertension-fighting legumes (chickpeas), omega-3 rich and breast cancer preventative flax, cancer-preventing aromatics and my beloved heart healthy eggplants. Not only that, they taste great too. Here, I paired them with with a few extra fixings for a bit of a vegan meatballs platter, but you can also have them more simply, with some green salad, grain or pasta. I garnished them with a Turkish-inspired spicy tomato and pepper relish, drizzled with creamy tahini sauce and served alongside some rustic pitta croutons for a bit of extra crunch and texture. While I went vegan for the animals, I am forever astounded by how good this way of eating feels and how beneficial it is for our bodies, long term. I often listen to the leading plant-based doctors’ talks when I work and I never cease to be amazed at how perfect the world of plants is and how tapping into that potential could save us (and billions of animals) from so much needless suffering. While I’m not one of these people who think that we can dispense with Western medicine altogether and simply eat plants and meditate instead, I am a big proponent of them both, working in unison and not against each other.
30 baby plum tomatoes* 1 red Romano pepper a small handful of fresh parsley ¼-½ red onion (I used ¼ for milder flavour) 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses 2 garlic cloves, finely grated pul biber (spicy Turkish pepper flakes), to taste salt and pepper, to taste
TAHINI DRIZZLE
2 tbsp tahini juice of 1 lemon, adjust to taste salt and pepper 1 tsp date syrup (homemade or shop-bought) or maple syrup (optional)
FRIED BREAD / PITTA
day old Turkish bread or pitta oil salt
TAHINI DRIZZLE FRIED BREAD / PITTA
