Spiced Mashed Aubergine And Peas

Hi, this recipe is from The Guardian newspaper's 'Feast' magazine. It's issue 108 from Saturday 8th February 2020. It is on page 3 and it written by Yottam Ottolenghi. His description of it was : 'This is a very loose take on baingan bharta, an Indian mashed aubergine dish. We make it to use up roast aubergine from the deli counter. On quieter days, a few treasured staff will whip up some rotis to serve with it, but more often than not, we have it with plain rice.'I had this for my dinner about 5-6hrs before a swimming gala in-between I had a 'Graze lemon and blueberry' Cereal bar type thing for extra energy. This was filling enough to keep me going through my races but not filling that I felt sick.

Dietary Info:
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
- No Nuts
- I reckon about 3 of your 5-a-day.











Ingredients:
- 3 Aubergines, about 250g each, stems removed, then cut into roughly 3-4cm cubes
- 105ml Olive Oil {I used extra virgin}
- Salt and Black Pepper
- 150g Cherry Tomatoes
- 1 Red Onion, peeled and thinly sliced, about 120g net weight
- 6 Garlic Cloves, peeled and crushed {I finely chopped it}
- 30g Ginger, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 Green Chilli, finely chopped, seeds and all
- 1tsp Black Mustard seeds
- 1tsp Ground Tumeric
- 1tsp Ground Garam Masala
- 1tsp Ground Cumin
- 150g Tinned Plum Tomatoes, about 2/3 of a tin, roughly crushed by hand
- 20g Coriander Leaves, roughly chopped, plus 1tbsp extra to serve
- 200g Frozen Peas, defrosted
- 2tbsp Lemon Juice
- 2tbsp Greek-Style Yogurt
- 3 Spring Onions, trimmed and finely sliced at a slight angle

Method:
1: Heat the oven to 240℃/220℃ fan/475℉/Gas 9. Toss the aubergines in a large bowl with 4tbsp of oil, 3/4 of a tsp {1/2 + 1/4} of salt and a good grind of pepper. Transfer to an oven tray lined with baking paper and roast for 20mins.{make sure the tray has an edge to it to catch any juices because it will make your oven cleaner, or so dad said} {At this point I began on step 3}
2: Add the cherry tomatoes to the tray, give everything a stir, and return to the oven for 10mins, until the tomatoes are blistered and the aubergine is deeply golden.
3: Meanwhile, make the sauce. Put 2tbsp of Oil in a large saute pan {You can use a large frying pan; I did} on a medium-high heat. Fry the onion, stirring occasionally, for about 7mins, until nicely browned, then add the garlic, ginger and chilli, and cook for 2mins more, until browned and fragrant.
4: Add the spices and cook, stirring constantly, for 30seconds, then tip in the tinned tomatoes, 300ml of water, 1/2tsp salt and plenty of pepper and bring to a simmer. Lower the heat to medium and cook, stirring every now and then, for 15mins, until thick and rich. Stir in the coriander
5: Stir in the coriander, peas, half of the lemon juice and the roast vegetables, use a fork to roughly mash the mix together . {if there's no space in your pan put everything in a bowl, maybe the one you used earlier- if you haven't already washed it-, and mix together in there. That's what I did}
6: In a small bowl, mix the yogurt with an 1/8tsp of salt and the remaining tbsp each of lemon juice and oil. Transfer the mashed aubergine to a serving plate and top with the spring onion and extra coriander. Drizzle all over with the yogurt and serve warm.