We roasted eggplant until it became soft and silky and topped it with Chermoula (a North African spice mix with garlic and preserved lemon). Sprinkled with tart feta cheese and fresh herbs.
This dish is adapted from a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s brilliant cookbook, Jerusalem. Ottolenghi is an Israeli-born British chef who, among other things, writes one of my favorite recipe columns in the Guardian. He’s a master of incredibly flavorful vegetable dishes, and has a particular knack for eggplant.
Eggplant can be controversial: some love it, some hate it. If you’re on the hate side, it might be because you haven’t had it cooked well. Too much oil and it can be greasy, not enough and it turns rubbery. But grilled with a miso glaze, or roasted with Middle Eastern spices, it’s absolutely delicious.
I’ve always loved cookbooks. Some of my earliest memories involve sitting on the kitchen floor while my mom cooked, lazily flipping through one of the volumes that she kept on the pantry shelves. My favorites were the Fannie Farmer Cookbook and the Joy of Cooking, both dog-eared and stained, evidence of how often they were used.
The recipes in them were often befuddling in their 1970s eccentricities; for example, our edition of JoC included a Guide to Approximate Yield or Cuts from an 800-Pound Steer and How To Clean And Prep a Squirrel (funnily enough, neither of these would be out of place in a hipster, DIY butchery guide today).
Now, as an enthusiastic home cook, I’ve amassed quite a collection of cookbooks and while I read them often, I probably cook more often using other food blogs and columns.
You’ll probably have most of the ingredients for this recipe in your pantry, except perhaps for preserved lemons. Probably best known for their use in Moroccan tagines, these pickled lemons add a salty, lemony kick to many North African and Middle Eastern dishes.
I’ve never made them myself, but this recipe from the New York Times has been on my to-do list for ages. I bought some from our favorite local gourmet shop, Beacon Pantry, but they’re also available online. If you don’t want to use them, substitute 3 teaspoons of finely grated lemon zest and an extra pinch of salt.
Nerd Tip:
- Look for young eggplants with smooth, tight skins. I like the long Italian variety for this but the regular globe kind you find at the grocery store will work fine. Look for small to medium ones. The Japanese variety (very long and thin) don’t work as well for this because there’s not enough flesh.
- Young eggplant don’t need to be salted but if yours is older and has a lot of seeds, you might want to. Score the flesh as described in the recipe and sprinkle about 1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt over each cut side. Let eggplant sit upright in a colander in the sink for 30 minutes. Rinse, dry with paper towels and proceed with the rest of the recipe.
- If you don’t have (or don’t like) preserved lemon, substitute 3 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest and an extra pinch of coarse kosher salt.
- The eggplant is wonderful served with this Farro Salad for a vegetarian meal, or as a side dish with simple Baked Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Garlic.
Yotam Ottolenghi’s Chermoula Roasted Eggplant
Ingredients
- 2 cloves garlic minced or grated
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- 1 1/2 tablespoons preserved lemon peel finely chopped (available in stores, about 1 lemon)
- 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 medium eggplants not the long, thin Japanese variety
- 3-4 ounces feta cheese (recommended: French or Greek)
- 1/4 cup fresh mint leaves roughly chopped (basil or parsley work well too)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Make the chermoula: in a small bowl mix together the garlic, cumin, coriander, chili flakes, paprika, salt, preserved lemon and olive oil.
- Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise. Using a paring knife, cut diagonal slits into the flesh of each eggplant in both directions, making criss-cross cuts. Be careful not to cut through the skin. Place the eggplant halves on a baking sheet, cut side up, and spoon the chermoula over each half, spreading it so it covers all the flesh. Place in the oven on the middle rack and roast for 40 minutes, or until the eggplants are completely soft.
- Remove from oven and place on a serving platter. Sprinkle with crumbled feta and mint. Drizzle with a little more olive oil, if desired. Serve the eggplants warm or at room temperature.
This looks absolutely amazing! I’ve had his book Plenty siting on my shelf for ages, and now it looks like it’s taken your blog post to get me toactually make one of his legendary eggplant recipes! My absolute favorite recipe of his (mostly because it’s one of the easiest, shhh 😉 is polenta crisps with avocado and yogurt, it’s a fabulously uncommon and delicious appetizer for guests to much on whilst awaiting dinner. Here’s the recipe link if it wets your palate – http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/polenta-crisps-with-avocado-and-yoghurt-shop
Omg, crispy polenta is one of my favorite things ever. Matt’s been itching to make it forever and we might have to do it soon after seeing that recipe! Looks SO GOOD!
I ran across this post and since it is eggplant season, I gave it a try last weekend. Unfortunately, before buying the eggplant, I didn’t internalize the line about not using thin Japanese eggplants, and bought two of those. And so, during baking the eggplant flesh melted into almost nothing, leaving mostly spice mixture and skin. That said, it was still pretty good. I’m looking forward to trying in next weekend with more substantial eggplant.
The spice mixture is so good it got me thinking: on what other vegetables could it be used? What if I placed it on thin slices of winter squash, and baked until the squash was tender? Or made layers of chermoula and potato, then baked them together? Or used the chermoula as a filling for that fancy potato dish where you make vertical slices in a potato, slather with butter, then bake?
Hi Marc, I definitely think winter squash would be a great bet. You could halve an acorn or delicata squash and spoon the chermoula over before you baked it. For the potatoes, I think you’re thinking of Hasselbacks (we have recipe for them on this site). If you try any of these, I’d love to know what you think of the results!
For a faster, homemade alternative to preserved lemons, I’ve had success with “quick preserved lemons” from Mark Bittman! Here’s the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/dining/20minirex.html?ref=dining
I adore Marc Bittman’s recipes. Thanks for pointing me to this!
Mmm… this looks amazing, and you put feta on it too? Anytime someone starts talking about feta cheese, my ears immediately perk up. I’ve loved it ever since I first had it with gyros.
Mine turned out to be a little bitter. Is it because lemon and lime when cooked taste bitter ?
How to resolve ?
Hi Sue, when you say lemon and lime, do you mean the preserved lemon? That has a bit of a bitter flavor, which is meant to be there. If it’s just a little on the bitter side, the addition of a little bit of honey should balance it. Also, older eggplants can also be bitter so make sure you buy young ones with few seeds.