When I cook for the students at Midreshet Zohar,in Bat Ayin this is one of the quickest, easiest, yet delicious and most requested meals for their Wednesday evening class.
This simple vegan menu of
Oven roasted Vegetables with Herbs,
Eggplant with Tahini
Yellow Bay and Coconut Scented Rice
creates a line at the table, also there is never a scrap left how ever much is made.
It seams almost cheating to give out a recipe for this but here we go.
- Quantities for 10- 12
- Preparation time 15-20 minutes
- Cooking time 80 -90 minutes for vegetables
- 15 minutes for the rice
- 5 minutes the Tahini
Roasted Vegetables you can use any but these are the most popular
4-5 medium size zucchini
2- 3 Fennel
2 tomatoes
2 red onions
3 sweet potatoes
2 whole garlic
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh Rosemary
3 red peppers
Good quality sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 table spoon good quality extra virgin olive oil or other vegetable oil.
Roasted Egg Plant and Tahini
3 Egg plants depending on size washed, sliced in wedges placed in a colander sprinkled with salt leave salted eggplant sit for at least 1/2 hour to 1 hour, When you're ready to cook, rinse the eggplant under cold water to remove the excess salt and pat dry. this stage is important as it removes the bitter flavor from the eggplant.
4-5 cloves Garlic
Sea salt
Extra virgin Olive Oil
For the Tahini
1 tub whole ground Tahini paste
1 lemon juiced
1/2 cup fresh finely chopped parsley
4 cloves garlic
1-2 cups cold water
1/2 teaspoon date syrup ( optional)
1 teaspoon good quality sea salt.
For Rice
1 onion finely chopped
2 cups Basmati rice ( you can use brown which is my preference, my ladies only like white !)
4 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoon coconut oil
2 bay leaves
Method
Heat the oven to Gas Mark 6 , 400 F 200 C.
Main Vegetables
Place baking paper in the bottom of a large oven tray
Peel and wash the sweet potato cut into disks.
Peel the read onion cut into 6
Wash top and tail the zucchini, wash it and cut into wedges
Take the outer skin of the garlic off and leave the inner skin, wash under cold water
Wash the red pepper, take out the center core stalk and seeds of the red pepper and cut into 6-8 depending on the pepper size
Cut the fennel int 6, topping and tailing, wash thoroughly under cold water.
Wash the tomatoes and slice them
Place the vegetables in the baking dish in rows, separate, I normally put the fennel near the zucchini but not the peppers.
Place the sliced tomato over the fennel
Sprinkle fresh thyme on the zucchini, rosemary on the sweet potatoes, and season with salt and pepper , drizzle oil over the vegetables place in the oven uncovered.
Check how they are cooking after an hour, then cover with silver foil and cook for a further 20-30 minutes you can reduce the heat at this stage
Eggplant
Place baking paper on bottom of a separate baking tray
Take the washed and sliced eggplant and place in baking dish
add the garlic, randomly around the dish.
season with salt and pepper drizzle on the oil.
Place in the oven uncovered,check how they are cooking after an hour, then cover with silver foil and cook for a further 20-30 minutes you can reduce the heat at this stage
Tahini
Wash and place the parsley and garlic in to a food processor and chop till very fine.
Add the rest of the ingredients, blend .taste and adjust the seasoning. it should be a creamy pouring consistency set aside. When the eggplant is cooked pour the tahini over the eggplant while it is hot so the eggplant soaks up all the flavor.
Rice
Boil the water in a kettle
Place a heavy bottom pot with a tight lid on the stove , melt half the coconut oil slowly in the bottom of the pot.
Add the chopped onions saute for 3-4 minutes
Rinse the rice under cold water in a sieve,shake off excess water add to the oil and stir so all the grains are covered with the oil.
Add the salt and mix
Add the boiling water, bay leafs and turmeric mix put the lid on the pot, bring to the boil then turn the pot down to a simmer.
Do not remove the lid for 15 minutes then test the rice turn off the heat
Place a sheet of kitchen paper on top of the rice place the lid back on the pot and leave to stand for 5-10 minutes.
Remove the paper, fluff the rice up with a fork.
Serving suggestions, eat while hot make a green salad with a simple olive oil garlic and lemon dressing to eat with with this .
An Ideal go to quick meal to share with family or friends with a glass of white wine in the garden on a warm summers evening all the natural flavors are enhanced by roasting turning them into the hero of the meal the vegetables the rice and tahini turn this into a substantial meal.
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