Vegan Aubergine Bake with Pesto Crumble

Hey guys!

I wanted to show my classic cookie dough recipe that is the fool proof way to get the most amazing chewy cookies. They’re easily veganised so check them out with my niecey here. We wanted to add rainbows to celebrate the efforts of the NHS because in a family home, bed time coincides with the moment of gratitude everyone is sharing so we’re saying thank you in other ways aha!

Ingredients

• Aubergine x 2

• Red Lentils (2 cup)

• Garlic

• Red Peppers x 2

• Tomato Puree

• Oregano

• Vegan Greek Cheese Alternative (Free From Sainsbury’s)

• Good Karma Parmesan Cheese

• Pesto (or Pine Nuts (100g) Olive Oil (1/2 cup) Fresh Basil (30 stems) blended.)

• Salt

• Olive Oil

• White Pepper

• Bread Crumbs (Or Stale Bread Grated)

So this recipe is so easy you just are assembling these gorgeous ingredients and baking it haha! But to break down each step, the first thing you need to do is wash and prep some red lentils. Take two cups and in a sieve wash for about 3 minutes or until they are fully clean. Then pop into a pan with a sprinkle of salt, and bring to the boil. These take maybe 30 minutes before they start breaking down into a soupy style lentil texture, which is not what we want. For this recipe you want the lentils to be cooked for 15-20 and still hold their individual shapes.

Next step is to prepare the aubergine, which you wash, slice and sprinkle with salt. It takes about 30 minutes for the salt to pull out the bitter liquid and tenderise them slightly, but it’ll do the magic without you having to put any work into it. Now for the third part, you want to mix up some pesto with some free from Greek style cheese. I used a ready bought vegan pesto, but if you want to do this part from scratch it just takes some fresh basil, some olive oil and pine nuts in a blender and you have a simple, basic pesto. Mix in a tsp of white pepper, a tsp of salt, the Greek style cheese, and a cup of breadcrumbs. I used a fork break this up into a crumble.

Finally we’re going to cook some red sweet peppers in the oven for about 30 minutes, you need to brush them with olive oil and allow to burn slightly. Once they’re cooked, add two tbsp of tomato purée, some salt and vinegar to your taste, and a tsp of oregano to a blender and blend until smooth. Mix this with your red lentils and you have the three layers. Start off by adding some oil to a baking dish, layer in the aubergine and then the lentils. Repeat this two or three times depending on how finely sliced you made your ingredients. For me, it was two thickems layers. Then on top you add crushed up pesto and cheese breadcrumbs, and finally sprinkle a layer of a vegan Parmesan alternative like Good Karma companies on top.

This is such a delicious take on ‘eggplant Parmesan’ and tastes delicious on a cold winters day. Let me know how you get on with it at home.