Roast aubergine purée with sweet potatoes, wild rice, spring onions and spinach
Ingredients
For the aubergine purée and sweet potato
- 2 aubergines, halved lengthways
- 1 garlic bulb, cloves separated but unpeeled
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 sweet potatoes, cut into 2cm/1in cubes
- pinch dried chilli flakes, to taste
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the rice
- 2 tbsp wild rice
- 2 tbsp red rice
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp almonds, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds, roughly ground
For the spring onions and spinach
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 8 spring onions, trimmed
- handful baby spinach
Method
For the aubergine purée and sweet potato, preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Put the aubergines in a roasting tray, sprinkle with the garlic cloves, drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil, season with salt and pepper, cover with kitchen foil and roast for 1 hour, until soft.
Meanwhile, put the sweet potato in a second roasting tray, drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, sprinkle with the chilli flakes, season with salt and pepper and mix well to make sure the sweet potato is coated. Roast for 40 minutes, or until soft and golden-brown.
When the aubergines are cooked and cool enough to handle, remove the garlic and set aside. Scoop the soft aubergine flesh from the skins, roughly chop, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
For the rice, cook the two types of rice in salted boiling water according to packet instructions. Drain, rinse with cold water until cool and set aside. Heat the oil in a small frying pan over a medium heat and toast the almonds, sesame seeds and coriander seeds for 1–2 minutes. Toss into the cooked rice, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
For the spring onions and spinach, heat the oil in a saucepan, add the spring onions and a splash of water, cover and leave to wilt for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the spinach, remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper and stir.
To serve, spread a generous amount of the aubergine purée on the base of a serving dish and scatter over the sweet potatoes, roasted garlic cloves, spinach, spring onions and wild rice mixture.