I love aubergines in all forms, stir-fried, roasted, stewed, so when I saw that Lidl was having a sale on aubergines (although to be honest, how expensive are aubergines normally anyway?) I decided to start off my Vegetarian Lunch Week with an Aubergine recipe. This recipe is extremely easy, you couldn't mess this up even if you tried, so cooking noobs, this one is for you! You could almost say it's a 'gateway' recipe. Hehe.
That was a pretty bad joke wasn't it? Please ignore it and move on to the recipe.
Ingredients (Serves 1.5 me's, or one very hungry person)
- Half an aubergine (aka eggplant, brinjal, whatchamacallits...)
- Dollop of olive oil (or normal vegetable oil)
- Spaghetti (to your preference)
- 1 Tomato, diced
- Pasta Sauce
- Sprinkling of Parmesan Cheese (mozzarella also goes well with this recipe)
- Sliced mushrooms
- Pinch of salt and pepper (optional)
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line your pan with aluminium foil.
- Cut your aubergine slices lengthwise into approximately 5 slices of equal thickness.
- Brush aubergine slices with olive oil on both sides, then spread some pasta sauce on one side and sprinkle with diced tomatoes.
- Grate some fresh Parmesan on top.
- Put the slices in the oven and roast for approximately 15 minutes (may differ depending on your oven)
- Cook spaghetti according to instructions on your package! I like mine a bit al dente, so I cook it around 6-8 minutes, with a pinch of salt in the cooking water.
- While that's boiling, slice your mushrooms, and fry with a tiny bit of olive oil in the pan.
- Once mushrooms are soft, dump pasta sauce in to your preference.
- Drain the spaghetti, saving a tiny bit of pasta water to put in the frying pan with your pasta sauce, then mix the spaghetti in just to cover it with sauce.
- Plate spaghetti and place aubergines on top, for a fancy photo-op.
Tip: If you want to go vegan, cut the cheese out and use julienned zucchini to replace spaghetti (or use vegan spaghetti?)
