Vegan - Grilled Aubergine (Eggplants) Garnished With Tomato Cranberry Sauce

Hello Foodies & Hiver Friends!

Hope all of you are doing fine in the neck of your woods! Today, I thought of finally making the Aubergine that I bought at the beginning of last week. Yep, last week !!! I thought I cooked them already and because they were in the 2nd refrigerator located in the storage room, I forgot all about them. Life had been busy last week because of our yearly medical check-up like X-ray here and ultrasound there. Everything has its schedule, and glad, everything went smoothly.

So today, I am going to share one of our faves at home and that is the Grilled Aubergine (Eggplants) stuffed with the tomato sauce. It is actually a version of the Imam Bayildi recipe which is originally stuffed eggplants with tomatoes and olives... In my version, I used to make them with raisins. Nowadays, I am adding the dried Cranberries instead to reduce calories. My version is sweet and sour. And although I grilled each of the pieces as one piece (fan-like below), this time I sliced each and garnish on top the tomato fillings.

I used to plant my Aubergine in containers (below image) but last year, we gave up the house and garden we lived-in for 30 years.. we miss it but too much work had been involved for our advanced age..Lol! We now live in a flat with no stairs , no garden but I am doing container gardening again in our balcony.

Note: If you prepare all the ingredients beforehand, you´ll be halfway done.

So here we go:

Grilled Aubergine With Tomato-Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

3 pieces Aubergine /Eggplants - the bigger rounded ones, sliced into 3 pieces each
5 medium size tomatoes, chopped into small pieces
3 cloves garlic, crushed and finely sliced
1/2 cup dried Cranberries
1 cup spring onions, chopped
1 red pepper, diced
juice of 1 lemon
olive oil
1.5 cups tomato purée
salt
ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fine Sugar or if avoiding sugar , use the sweetener Stevia powder

P R E P A R A T I O N S

1... Preheat the oven at 180°C and line an oven baking tray with baking paper.
2... In a heated frying pan with 2 tablespoon olive oil, fry the garlic , add the spring onions , the red pepper and the cranberries. Stir until all ingredients are brown in color.

3... Add the tomatoes, stir again to evenly mix all the vegetables.

4... Add the tomato purée and boil under low heat, then simmer for about 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper and the stevia powder. Adjust the sweetness depending on the taste you prefer.

5... Spread the Aubergine slices on the oven tray lined with baking paper. In a bowl, mix 1 cup of water, juice of one lemon, and 2 tablespoon olive oil. Using a brush...

5.1.... coat each slice top with the lemon + oil + water mixture, set the remaining mixture aside to coat the garnish slices later. You may add more water and oil.
5.2.... Spread the tomato cranberry sauce on each slice...
5.3.... Put the tray in the middle rack of the oven and grill for about 30 minutes... dip the pastry brush in the lemon + oil + water mixture and brush/tap the garnished slice with it carefully. Then cover the tray with an aluminum foil and grill for another 30 minutes... Remove from the oven and transfer to a platter. Can be served warm or cold as side dish or main dish with baguette or any white bread.

All images in this post were photographed and owned by @mers.

GIF by @gremayo

_{Posted via foodiesunite.net}