Aubergine Hummus

No, this isn't Baba Ganoush, the usual dish that one would expect as an eastern dip to accompany my Moroccan meal. I wanted to make something slightly different - so we have aubergine hummus. Or eggplant hummus (depending on where you're from).

A creamy delicious change from normal chickpea hummus - this mixes the chickpeas with roasted aubergine, with notes of garlic, lemon juice and a touch of cumin. Lovely with anything.

Ingredients:

1 aubergine, sliced into rings
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tbsp. olive oil
300g chick peas, rinsed
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. ground cumin


Set the oven to 190 C. Place the aubergine slices onto a baking sheet, sprinkle the garlic over the top and drizzle with one of the tablespoons of olive oil. Pop in the oven for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it - if the slices are too thin it will burn. You want the aubergine to be tender.

Remove the aubergine from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Then tip into a food processor along with the chick peas, lemon, cumin and remaining olive oil. Process until smooth and put into a nice serving dish. Dress with a drizzle more oil and some pickles on the side.

Note: I have decorated this with redcurrants as I harvested some today from the garden, but you can use anything you like. Indecently, the redcurrants were lovely with the hummus! Enjoy!

Moroccan Roast Carrot Salad (V)

This is a lovely dish that I made last night whilst making a Moroccan meal. It could be a side dish but holds its own as a lunch with some flatbreads. I am so glad that there are leftovers as I know that this will be my lunch today, along with some simple bread.

I'm not sure why but every time I have made a carrot salad in the past I have used raw carrots, usually grated. These are cooked with eastern spices and are warm, sweet, tender and delicious!

Ingredients:    (Serves 2)

 

4 small carrots, peeled and quartered

1/2 red onion, peeled cut into wedges

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. sumac, optional

1 tbsp. ground cinnamon

1 tbsp. paprika

1 preserved lemon halved or 1/2 fresh lemon halved

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tbs olive oil

salt & pepper

150g chickpeas, drained

1 cup rocket or lambs leaf lettuce

1 tbs sliced almonds

 

Method:

 

Set the oven to 180 C. Put all of the ingredients, apart from the chickpeas, rocket and almonds, into a bowl and mix thoroughly. Put onto a baking sheet and roast for around 30 minutes, or until the carrot is tender.

 

Remove from oven, add the chick peas and stir in. and leave to cool a little. Put some rocket on a serving dish and place the carrot mixture on top. Drizzle over some olive oil, sprinkle with sliced almonds and serve at room temperature with some flatbreads or crusty bread. Enjoy!