Aubergine with Tomatoes, Chickpeas & Yogurt

Aubergine with Tomatoes, Chickpeas & Yogurt makes a great vegetarian main course or part of a mezze style meal.

Aubergines & chickpeas are braised in a spicy tomato sauce inspired by the food of the Middle East and North Africa. To serve, contrasting creamy yogurt with garlic, cumin and paprika is spooned over.

With simple ingredients, it’s a dish greater than the sum of its parts.

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Aubergine with Tomatoes, Chickpeas & Yogurt brings together of some of my favourite aubergine dishes of the Middle East and North Africa.

I’ve eaten the elements in various combinations before, but not exactly like this or with these particular flavours.

Popular in the region are fried or griddled aubergine slices topped with yogurt or yogurt mixed with tahini. There’s often a sprinkling of cumin or sumac and sometimes pomegranate seeds and/or pine nuts for colour and crunch.

Aubergine with tomato is a classic of many cuisines (take a look at my recipe for Karniyarik for a Turkish, meaty version).

Add nutty chickpeas and you’ve the basis of a huge variety of vegetarian or entirely plant-based dishes. And not just from the Middle East and North Africa, but from around the world.

I’d be very remiss here if I didn’t give a shout-out to my Indian-inspired Aubergine & Chickpea Curry.

But, with its subtle spicing and cloak of creamy yogurt, I don’t think you could tie down Aubergine with Tomatoes, Chickpeas & Yogurt to any particular place.

Certainly echoing the Middle East and North Africa, it’s my own recent invention which has become a great favourite in our house.

With relatively simple ingredients, I think this dish really is greater than the sum of its parts.

Aubergine with Tomatoes, Chickpeas & Yogurt

The more I cook with aubergine, the more I love it.

But it has to be meltingly soft and have been roasted, fried or grilled before adding to a dish. This improves the flavour enormously.

In this recipe, I grill thick slices after brushing with oil and sprinkling with a little salt.

If your grill isn’t very large then you might need to do this in batches.

The slices should be cut in half before adding to the spicy tomato sauce. You could do this before grilling, but I find they tend to slip between the bars of the grill.

Also added to the sauce is a tin of drained chickpeas. These are one of my favourite pulses as I love their nuttiness.

The spicy tomato sauce is dead easy. If you’re good at multi-tasking, then get started on it while the aubergine’s grilling. This will cut considerably the total time it takes to make this dish.

I start by gently cooking plenty of garlic in olive oil. Next go in the spices (cumin, paprika and dried chilli flakes) swiftly followed by the tomatoes, a little sugar for balance, salt and pepper plus a very Middle Eastern ingredient: pomegranate molasses.

Now widely available, including in large supermarkets, pomegranate molasses adds a distinct sweet and sour flavour. If you don’t have it, then you can increase the sugar a little and add a squeeze of lemon right at the end of cooking.

Once the tomato sauce is reducing nicely, I add the chickpeas and aubergines for the final cooking.

How long this takes will depend on how soft you like your aubergine. Around 15 – 25 minutes should do it.

Then it’s time to plate up.

Serving Aubergine with Tomatoes, Chickpeas & Yogurt

You can serve the dish hot, warm or at room temperature.

I like to spread it on a platter while hot and then let it cool a little before adding the yogurt topping.

Actually, I recommend that you put the yogurt together BEFORE you start cooking the aubergine and sauce. That will give time for the garlic and spices to permeate.

I simply sprinkle chopped garlic with a pinch of salt and then mash them together with the flat side of a knife blade. The resulting paste is stirred into yogurt (preferably thick or Greek style) along with ground cumin, paprika and a little black pepper. Add a squeeze of lemon too if you like.

When the aubergine, tomatoes and chickpeas are warm rather than hot, I swirl the spiced yogurt over the top.

For contrast and extra hits of flavour, I like to sprinkle with either sumac or my homemade za’atar spice blend.

Some fresh chopped herb, either parsley or coriander, freshens up the earthy flavours.

While you could eat Aubergine with Tomatoes, Chickpeas & Yogurt as a vegetarian main course, adding a green salad and maybe some bread, I like it as part of a mezze style meal.

On a table with lots of other little dishes, similarly inspired by the Middle East and North Africa, and you can create a real feast.

We even enjoyed it recently as a Sunday lunch alongside Moroccan style roasted chicken, spiced brown rice with nuts, dried fruit and peas, a mixed salad plus a warm carrot and garlic salad.

However you eat Aubergine with Tomatoes, Chickpeas & Yogurt, I think you’ll be surprised just how good this combination of simple flavours and textures is.

Don’t forget to let me now what you thought by leaving a comment and rating the recipe.

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Aubergine with Tomatoes, Chickpeas & Yogurt

Aubergines & chickpeas in a spicy tomato sauce, dressed with creamy yogurt flavoured with garlic, cumin and paprika. Eat as a vegetarian main course or as part of a mezze style meal.

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish, Light Meal

Cuisine Middle Eastern, Vegetarian

Keyword mezze

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Servings 2 as a main course, 4 as part of a mezze

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

For the yogurt

• 1 clove garlic roughly chopped
• 1 pinch salt
• 250 ml plain yogurt preferably thick/Greek style
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp paprika
• freshly ground black pepper
• squeeze of lemon juice optional

For the aubergines, tomatoes & chickpeas

• 2 medium aubergines
• 2 tbsp olive oil plus extra for brushing the aubergine slices
• salt to taste
• 4-6 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2 heaped tsp ground cumin
• 1 heaped tsp ground paprika
• ¼-½ tsp dried chilli flakes
• 400 g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1-2 tsp sugar optional
• 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses see Recipe Notes
• freshly ground black pepper
• 400 g tin of chickpeas drained weight: approx 240g
• 3 tbsp fresh parsley roughly chopped
• 1-2 tsp sumac or za'atar for sprinkling

Instructions

Make the yogurt first

1. Sprinkle the chopped garlic with a pinch of salt.

   Using the flat part of a knife blade, mash the salt into the garlic to create a paste.

2. Stir the garlic paste into the yogurt along with the cumin, paprika, a grind of black pepper plus a squeeze of lemon juice if using.

   Mix together well, taste and adjust seasoning if necessary then set aside.

Cooking the aubergines, tomatoes & chickpeas

1. Switch the grill on to high.

2. Remove and discard the ends of the aubergine then cut the rest into slices approx 2cm thick, then cut each one of these in half.

3. You may need to do this step in batches if your grill is small, or brown some in a hot oven.

   Lay the aubergine pieces on the grill rack, brush with oil and sprinkle with a little salt. Grill until golden brown (5-10 min)

   Turn, then brush the other side with oil, sprinkle with salt and grill until browned (4-7 min).

   Remove the aubergine to a plate and switch off the grill.

4. Meanwhile, put 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large frying pan on a low heat.

   When heated, add the chopped garlic and cook until only just golden (1-2 min).

5. Stir in the ground cumin, paprika and dried chilli flakes and cook for 1 min.

6. Stir in the chopped tomatoes (swish out the can with a little water and add that too), sugar if using, the pomegranate molasses, and season with salt and pepper.

7. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

8. Stir in the chickpeas and the browned aubergine then continue cooking until the aubergine is done to your liking and the sauce is thick and rich. (15-25 min)

   Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

9. Take off the heat and stir in 2 tbsp of the parsley.

Serving

1. Spread the aubergine, tomato and chickpeas over a shallow platter and allow to cool a little.

2. Spoon over the spiced yogurt and sprinkle with the sumac or za'atar plus the final tablespoon of chopped parsley.

Recipe Notes

If you don't have pomegranate molasses, you may wish to increase the sugar by 1 tsp and add a squeeze of lemon when you stir in the parsley.