TAHINI - GRILLED LETTUCE & BURNT AUBERGINE

It’s summer! and BBQ season, even for vegetable lovers like me, which is enough to make anyone excited. In celebration of this and all things vegetable here’s a couple of recipes that involve grilled vegetables, with tahini sauce, a favourite of mine.

Of course this tahini will go nicely with any grilled veg, but these two recipes work particularly well.

Firstly a grilled lettuce salad, this salad will change your attitude to both lettuce and salads. It’s proof that lettuce doesn’t have to be boring at all.

I know a lot of people struggle to make salads, interesting, filling & exciting to eat. So this is where I come in to help, with recipes, ideas and inspiration for you. Don’t feel like you always have to stick to a salad recipe, you can mix things up, experiment. It’s not baking, it doesn’t need to be exact, and you can have fun with it!  Yes, fun with a salad.

Grilling lettuce shows a different side to this crunchy leaf, it’s warm, charred, smoky and melts into the tahini sauce.

This would be lovely as a side or cook up some grains, roast some sweet potatoes or grill some bread to serve along side and make this more of a meal.

Tahini is rich in protein and calcium along with other vitamins and minerals. Toasted mixed seeds on top give you omega 3s, bright pomegranate and dark herbs all pack nutrients and vitamins in.

The other recipe I thought I would share is my burnt aubergine and tahini.

Like a deconstructed babaganoush. Burning aubergine does something magical to it, a delicious transformation occurs, which works so well with tahini.

One last thing before the recipes, I have exciting news..  Palm Greens the salad bar has finally opened!!

It’s a plan that’s been in the making for a while, you may remember our pop up, Green Flamingo a couple of years ago. Palm Greens we hope will be a lot more permanent.

We’re serving up fresh, locally sourced, plant based and most of all delicious salads and dips. Starting with Saturdays at Hoxton Square market, we are aiming to grow over the next few months. So watch this space..

For menus and photos take a look at the Palm Greens tab here on my site. 

Photography: Rebecca Jane Callaby Prop styling: Rosie Jenkins

For the Grilled Lettuce Salad

 Serves 8 as a side

8 baby gem or 4 larger cos lettuce

2 tablespoons melted coconut oil

1 grapefruit, segmented

seeds of half pomegranate

100g mixed seeds

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce

100g crumbly vegan cheese - New Roots ricotta would be perfect - optional

salt & pepper

olive oil to drizzle

 Tahini sauce

150g tahini

50ml olive oil

150ml water

Juice 1 lemon

1 small clove garlic

big pinch salt

Firstly, prepare your ingredients. To make your tahini dressing. Add all the ingredients to a high speed blender and blitz until smooth. You could also do this by hand with a bowl and a whisk. Simply grate the garlic in and whisk the rest of ingredients together.

To segment the grapefruit, use a sharp knife to slice off the skin, then with the knife, carefully remove each segment.

For the pomegranate, cut and using your finger remove the seeds. – Some people recommend using a wooden spoon to hit the pomegranate to get the seeds out. For the home cook, I think this is too messy and one pomegranate doesn’t take too long.

To toast your seeds, heat a frying pan large enough to fit the seeds in one layer, add the seeds, toast for a  couple of minutes, add the oil and tamari, and stir to make sure everything is coated. Toast for a further few of minutes until browned, mixing to make sure the seeds are evenly toasted, remove from heat and place in a bowl until ready to use.

On a hot bbq or in a grill pan - heat the pan on a high heat until smoking. While heating, half the baby gem or cos, rinse, and place in the bowl to coat with the melted coconut oil. When the grill is hot, place the lettuce cut side down in a single layer; grill for 3-4 minutes, try not to to touch or move the lettuce around, take a peek around the 3 minute mark to see if they’re nicely coloured. When they’re browned, carefully turn and grill the other side for another minute. Carefully remove and set aside, repeat the process with remaining lettuce. Remove from the pan, season with salt and pepper.

To plate spoon the tahini dressing onto a large serving dish, or 4 individual plates. Divide the lettuce between the plates. Sprinkle with pomegrate seeds, toasted seeds and pieces of grapefruit, if you like, a little crumble of soft white ‘cheese’ and drizzle of oil.

Burnt Aubergine and Tahini

Serves 8 as a side

4 whole aubergine

salt & pepper to taste

olive oil

chopped parsley

1 portion tahini

Optional toppings :

pomegranate seeds

crispy chickpeas

tamari seeds

Burn the aubergine whole over an open flame, either on the BBQ or the open flame of your gas hob, turning regularly until charred all over, this should take a few minutes.

Split open and top with some chopped parsley, pomegranate seeds for a nice burst of freshness & toasted seeds or crispy chickpeas for crunch.

For chickpeas – drain chickpeas and pat dry, toss with 2 tablespoon oil & seasoning, roast in pre heated over 200c for about 20 minutes stirring once halfway through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, they will continue to crisp up as they cool.