A small Levantine Feast
This feast center around a juicy baked aubergine and yogurt salad. It’s served with all the extras: crunchy, spiced crackers, a filling, grain salad, a tangy bright slaw and a colourful root vegetable salad with a sparkly pomegranate dressing.
The beautiful ceramics are all from Amsterdam based ceramic studio Birdtsang. I’ve added their contact details at the end of this post.
The inspiration for this aubergine salad is a levantine bread salad, aubergine fatteh, which is a salad layered with bread pieces, though my version isn’t a fatteh salad, it has the yogurt and baked aubergine, but the bread is served on the side instead of mixed with the yogurt. This was just my preference when we made this and you can add bread if you want to of course.
What I really love about this salad is the simple combination and contrast between the cool creamy yogurt and the fleshy aubergine in tomato sauce with the cumin roasted chickpeas. It’s so delicious to scoop up the saucy goodness with zaatar crackers.
To make it a whole meal and extra filling and fresh we made a simple tabolueh with bulgur and a salad with root vegetables, and pomegranate dressing.
To make the crackers, I used store bought flat bread. I just brushed it with olive oil, sprinkled with zaatar and a little salt and after a minute and half in the oven, the bread came out really crunchy and aromatic! With so little time invested making these crackers you’ll have more time to focus on other elements of the meal instead.
If you love these kinds of flavours I’d love to point you in the direction of chefs with roots in the Levantine kitchen. These are a few of my favourites:
Sabrina Ghayor is a Persian British chef and author of Bazaar, a vegetarian Middle Eastern cookbook.
Yotam Ottolenghi and Sammi Tammi’s book Jerusalem is a great go-to book for dishes from the region.
Nadia Gilbert is a chef with Palestinan roots, I really enjoy her videos and approach to cooking.
Recipes for a small feast:
Serves 4
Pre-heat the oven to 200℃.
Tip: You can bake the he root vegetables and the aubergine at the same time on different trays in the oven.
Toss the aubergine slices with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and place on a tray with baking paper. Sprinkle with salt and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. Turn the aubergine pieces around after 20 minutes.
Toss the root vegetables with salt and olive oil and spread out on an oven tray with baking paper. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, flip the veg after 20 minutes.
While the veggies are baking, cook the bulgur according to packet instructions. Let cool. Toss the ingredients for the Tabouleh salad togheter in a bowl and set aside until serving.
When the aubergine and root vegetables are baked. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Toss the root vegetables with kale in a bowl and mix the dressing ingredients together. Drizzle over the root salad salad and top with pomegrante seeds just before serving.
Toss the chickpeas with cumin, salt and olive oil. Spread out on an oven tray covered with paper and bake in the oven for 15 minutes (on 200℃).
Toss the ingredients for the red cabbage salad together in a bowl and set aside until serving.
Prepare the tomato sauce for the aubergine. Heat up a frying pan and drizzle with olive oil (the remaining 1 tablespoon). Fry the shallot while stirring for 2-3 minutes. Add salt, chili and crushed tomatoes and stir for 2 minutes, before adding aubergine. and then stirring for another minute. Turn off the heat.
Brush the flat breads with olive oil and sprinkle with zaatar. Pop into the oven for 1 and a half minute. Let cool and cut or break the bread pieces into smaller pieces.
Mix together the ingredients for the tahini-yogurt. Pour the yogurt on a serving plate or bowl. Top with the aubergines and drizzle over with tomato sauce. Top with chickpeas.
To serve place the aubergine salad, red cabbage salad, tabouleh, and zaatar crackers on the table. Enjoy!
Roots and Kale Salad with pomegranate dressing
600g mixed seasonal root vegetables ( I used chiogga beets, carrots and sweet potato) chopped into bite sized pieces:
salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
a generous bunch of curly kale or cavolo nero, sturdy stems removed, and chopped
2 tablespoons pomegranate seeds for topping
Walnut and Pomegranate dressing with parsley
6 walnuts finely ground
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon pomegranate juice
1 shallot, diced small
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsely
salt and pepper to taste
Aubergine Salad with Tahini-yogurt
2 medium sized aubergines, sliced into wedges
2+1 tablespoons olive oil
salt
2 small shallots, chopped
240g crushed tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon pul bieber/aleppo pepper or other red chili pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
Tahini-yogurt
500g turkish or greek yogurt or labneh, or use vegan yogurt
50g tahini
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3/4 tablespoon maple syrup or honey, or agave syrup
1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Smokey chickpeas
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teasspoons olive oil
250g cooked chickpeas
Red cabbage salad
300g red cabbage, shredded
1 red onion, shredded
2 teaspoon maple syrup, or honey or agave syrup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Zaatar crackers
4 large flat breads ( use manoush or other soft and thin middle-eastern flatbreads)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons zaatar
salt to taste
Bulgur tabouleh
200g bulgur
200g best quality plum or cherry tomatoes, chopped small
1 small english cucumber, chopped small
a generous bunch of parsley, chopped small
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspooon lemon juce
salt and pepper to taste
Vegan and gluten-free notes
VE Use vegan yogurt and maple syrup or agave syrup instead of honey.
GF Use gluten free flat breads.
Ceramic Crush!
Links to shop their beautiful pieces or to connect with Birdtsang Ceramic Studio:
birdtsang.com
on Instagram @thebirdtsang
