Aubergine 'steak'

Change the world, one meal at a time.

It's really not that hard to have a vegetarian meal a few times a week. I try to eat less and better meat. Today was a meatless day. This aubergine has nothing to do with meat, but I'm gonna call it a 'steak' anyway, simply because it sounds cool and the way it's cut, you could plate it as one.

Ingredients (2p):

• 2 aubergines • 1 onion • 4 garlic cloves • thumbsize piece of ginger • 2 tsp cumin powder • 2 tsp chilli flakes • 2 tbsp tomato puree • 3 tsp soy sauce • 2 tbsp sugar • 200 ml water • cornstarch slush • spring onions • black pepper •

1. Pre-heat your oven at 180°C. Slice off the tips of the aubergine and cut in half ones, so you end up with 4 think slices of aubergine total. Serve 1 whole aubergine per person.

2. Rub some oil and black pepper on both sides and put in the oven on parchment paper for 45 minutes.

3. Finely chop your onion, ginger and garlic. Start with frying the onion and ginger. Add the garlic when the first two are golden.

4. Add the chilli flakes and cumin and stir-fry for a bit. Add the tomato puree and saute for a minute. Finally add the water, soy sauce and sugar. Keep stirring well.

5. If the sauce is too wet, add some cornstarch slush, this will bind the sauce and give it a nice consistency that will stick to the aubergine better. Serve the aubergine with steamed rice and cover in the spicy red sauce.

Garnish with string onion or coriander leaves.

Enjoy!

If you don't want this meal to be vegetarian, you can eat the aubergine in the sauce as a side dish.

This dish gets its inspiration from a Meera Sodha dish from her book 'East' page 177.