Raheb

No tahini goes in at all, and the aubergine is torn into pieces rather than mashed — it is a salad, not a dip.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 3 large aubergines
• 4 tomatoes, diced
• 1 red onion, finely sliced
• a large handful of parsley, chopped
• a handful of mint, torn
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste with salt
• juice of 2 lemons
• 100 ml olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sumac
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. NO TAHINI GOES IN AT ALL, AND THE AUBERGINE IS TORN INTO PIECES RATHER THAN MASHED. Those two things together are what make this a salad and not a dip, and they are the whole difference from the smooth charred-aubergine dish on its own page. Here the flesh is pulled apart into rough thumb-sized pieces with the fingers or two forks and left recognisable, then tossed with diced tomato, sliced onion and herbs so that every forkful has distinct components in it. Add tahini and mash it and you have made the other dish; the ingredients overlap almost entirely and the result is not remotely the same.
2. THE AUBERGINES ARE STILL CHARRED OVER A FLAME. That part does not change -- the smoke is the backbone of both dishes. Whole, on a bare flame, until the skin is black and split and the flesh has given way.
3. THE FLESH IS DRAINED BUT NOT PRESSED. In a sieve for twenty minutes, left alone. Pressed to get more liquid out it breaks down into the paste this dish is trying not to be.
4. IT IS DRESSED WITH LEMON AND OIL ONLY, AND GENEROUSLY. Two lemons and a hundred millilitres of oil. With no tahini there is nothing to bind it, so the dressing is the only thing carrying the salad and it has to be assertive and plentiful.
5. THE ONION IS SLICED THIN AND GOES IN RAW. Red onion, as fine as possible. Against the smoke and the sour dressing it stays sharp and crunchy, which is most of the texture in the bowl.
6. IT IS ASSEMBLED NO MORE THAN AN HOUR BEFORE EATING. The aubergine goes on absorbing the dressing and the tomato keeps releasing water, so a bowl made in the morning is a puddle by evening. The aubergine can be charred a day ahead and kept.
7. The aubergines charred WHOLE over a bare flame, turned, 15 to 20 MINUTES, until black and collapsed.
8. Cooled, split, and the flesh scooped out. No black skin.
9. DRAINED in a sieve 20 MINUTES, not pressed.
10. The flesh TORN into rough thumb-sized pieces with the fingers or two forks. NOT mashed, NO tahini.
11. Combined with the tomatoes, sliced onion, parsley and mint.
12. The garlic paste, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper turned through.
13. Scattered with sumac.
14. TESTED: the aubergine should be in identifiable pieces and the bowl should look like a salad. If it reads as a dip, it was mashed.
15. Served at room temperature within the hour.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Lebanon · All recipes