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Roast aubergine layered salad with tomato, avocado, and pomegranate
I cannot have too many aubergines in my life, and this layered aubergine, tomato, and avocado salad is really easy to make, and the perfect thing to keep your microbiome boogieing all the way through through your bank holiday barbecue. If you want to turn it into a plant-based main, pile it on top of some well-seasoned borlotti beans – or perhaps some Le Puy lentils – drizzled with olive oil.
- A couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes
- Half a salad onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 3 teaspoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- A few sprigs of thyme
- Half a chilli
- 1 small avocado
- A dash of olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Fresh parsley
- Pomegranate seeds
- 1 Aubergine
- 4 teaspoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Preheat the oven to 200º / 180ºfan / gas mark 6
- Halve the aubergine, cut each half into 3 wedges, brush with olive oil, and give them a good few grindings of salt and pepper. Roast them skin-side down on a baking tray until completely cooked through and a bit squidgy – about 30 – 40 minutes. Lay them in a lattice on a plate
- Roughly chop the tomatoes,. Very thinly slice the onion – use a mandolin. N.b. be very careful with mandolin, there might be unsuspecting vegetarians at your table.
- Thinly slice the chilli, chop the thyme, and crush the garlic.
- Put it all in a bowl, give it a good salt and peppering, and drizzle over some olive oil. Mix really well.
- Spoon it over the aubergine.
- Thinly slice or roughly chop – depending on your mood – the avocado, toss it in salt, pepper and olive oil. If you want it to look less of a mess, don’t toss, and scatter it over the tomatoes.
- Scatter over the pomegranate seeds.
- If you are in the mood to chop some parsley, and you have some in the fridge that hasn’t gone yellow, scatter it on top.
Diva notes.
Cooking aubergines
Make sure they are really really cooked through. If you serve undercooked aubergine your friends may run away screaming and you might never see them again. If they don’t, you might need to ask yourself whether they have any taste buds, in which case all further invitations should be withdrawn so no further cooking is wasted on them.
Although they might just be thoughtful and kind and don’t want to hurt your feelings. It's a hard call.
But to be absolutely clear, undercooked aubergine is completely disgusting.
Avocado
Put it on a BOARD to chop it in half and dig out the stone. And do not dig out stone with a sharp knife. Either use your fingers, or a blunt or palate knife. NHS waiting lists would halve overnight if if they weren’t spending their waking hours sewing on bits of finger.
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