Being born and brought up in a Hindu family, vegetables and fruits have always been there in our daily meals. I am more comfortable cooking a vegetarian meal on a busy weeknight than probably some meat. And the reason behind this is that for a vegetarian meal, I don’t have to think twice or plan anything in advance, as that comes more intuitively to me than cooking chicken or fish. I’d rather keep meat for a more relaxed weekend. It might sound illogical to some, but that is true in my case at least. But it’s a different story, that I enjoy gorging on succulent meat as equally as munching on fresh vegetables or fruits.

On weekends, when I spend more time baking desserts and shooting them, I tend to gorge more on fresh fruits and salads, as that saves me another cooking effort. I’d happily boil a cup of chickpeas and enjoy them with some fresh tomato and cucumber salsa or will gobble up a big slice of watermelon or quench my thirst with a cool glass of spicy buttermilk.

Few days back, I happened to attend a book launch event at Fisher & Paykel experience center at Gurgaon, showcasing award-wining chef and restaurateur Ritu Dalmia’s Diva Green. I find a sweet connect with the chef through two of her famous shows Italian Khaana and Traveling Diva. I had always been a great fan of her simple Italian recipes, which she tells she got to learn during her travel to the country. In fact, her aglio olio e peperoncino pasta recipe is something, which is my favorite pasta recipe till date.  This time Ritu has come up with a  twist with her all mouth watering vegetarian recipes.

During the event, we got a chance to cook some of the recipes from her book, which was really a nice learning experience. We cooked Saint’s Day Pasta {a pasta bake with layered aubergines, tomato sauce, lots of Parmesan and mozzarella}, Arancine {fried risotto balls}, Warm caramelized onion and potato salad and Maple pumpkin fritters. All the recipes we tried were so homey and almost felt like a comfort food. The food you would want to chew on forever without complaining. And the best thing was, that it was all vegetarian. Ritu signed us a copy of Diva Green. The book has a collection of some nice vegetarian recipes from around the globe with some very basic and easy to find ingredients. And there is section on sauces, dips and stocks in the end, which is comes quite handy.

I tried this simple grilled eggplant salad from her book last weekend and enjoyed it thoroughly. I wanted to turn it into a meal, so I added some boiled chickpeas to it to make it more wholesome and filling. And I was happy that I did.

Ingredients

20 ml extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves of garlic smashed
salt and pepper to season
2 long eggplants, sliced thinly lengthwise
1/2 cup boiled chickpeas

The Dressing
100 ml hung yogurt
2 tbsp tahini
1/2 tsp garlic paste
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
water as required
handful of mint leaves, roughly chopped

The Garnish
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
2 tbsp mixed herbs, roughly chopped
1/2 cup toasted almonds or pine nuts

Instructions

1. In a bowl, mix olive oil, garlic salt and pepper.
2. Rub the eggplant slices with the oil marinade and roast in a grill pan till they are golden brown and cooked through. Keep aside.
3. In another bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for dressing. Add water to make a consistency of free flowing cream, if required. Taste and adjust salt.
4. Place the eggplants slices and chickpeas on a flat dish and drizzle it generously with yogurt dressing.
5. Garnish with pomegranate seeds, nuts and herbs.