I haven't had aubergines this year, its a vegetable that nowadays evokes greedy thoughts of my mothers Baingan Bharta - Smoky Aubergine; or middle eastern cuisine, so it may not be a surprise that at the weekend I made a Middle Eastern inspired meal when I brought home a couple of gorgeous two tone deep maroon aubergines, next to them were some bunches of coriander, so I picked some of that too.
Still unsure exactly what I was going to make with the aubergines, I gazed into my kitchen cupboards when my eyes fell upon a packet of Zaytoun Smoky Freekah and this dish of Smoky Freekah with Roasted Aubergines and Chickpeas was created.
The Smoky Freekah comes from Zaytoun. Zaytoun is a social enterprise founded in 2004 to create and develop a UK market for artisan fairly traded Palestinian produce that carries the stories of 'the producers and their land'. Zaytoun are celebrating their 10 year anniversary this year. I've been fortunate in the past to try some of their products including organic extra virgin olive oil, wild grown za'atar and more recently maftoul. I will share more later in the week, but today its all about the smoky greenwheat grain called Freekah. The Zaytoun freekah was really smoky in flavour and infused the oven roasted aubergines naturally.
You know I don't boast about my food that often, I just make it, eat it and share it with my bloggers, but I have to hand on heart say that this is one of the most delicious meals that I have ever made and enjoyed; and the truth is down to the ingredients namely the smoky freekah from Zaytoun.
The Smoky Freekah dish was accompanied with a Palestinian, I was originally going to make a Tahini Sauce to accompany this dish, but decided on a Palestinian Salatat Taheena - Tahini Salad. This salad was made not only to compliment the dish, but the fact was that I also had most of the ingredients to hand. I also think it could have done with some vegetable based falafels for additional texture, maybe next time.
Its been lovely and warm, maybe just a little too warm that when you get home after work or whatever, you really just don't want to cook, or at least spend an hour or so over a hot stove.
Well here is a grain, pulse and vegetable salad of sorts, its actually Freekah Pilau made with homegrown yellow mangetout, garden peas and tinned chickpeas. As it was my first time cooking with freekah. I sought inspiration from my Middle Eastern cookbooks, and one book in particular gave me inspiration Seductive Flavours of the Levant by Nada Saleh.
This recipe has two ingredients that may be new to some of you, as they were to me a while back. These are freekah, also known as frik (burned green wheat); and Ajvar paste, a red pepper and aubergine paste. Freekah is available from Middle Eastern shops and health shops, this particular one is a brand called Artisan Grains.
The Freekah Pilau was lovely and made a pleasant change from plain bulgar wheat, couscous and even rice. Freekah definitely has more texture than ordinary bulgar wheat, but for some reason I had expected it to have smoky undertones and it did not. This is not a spicy dish at all. It is however nutty and well flavoured with plenty of wholesome texture and bite. We have a fair bit over as the recipe makes a large amount, so we will both be having it for lunch tomorrow.
If you want to make a Middle Eastern Feast of it all serve the Freekah Pilau with falafel, dolmas and marinated green olives.
