Hey everyone! I came back from the holidays recently and slowly getting into blogging again. In my previous posts I shared with you some recipes using white and red currants, and you may think that I have had only berries during the summer time in Russia.. Yes I did! This summer has been bountiful: lots of amazing produce, including various berries – gooseberries, strawberries and currants, as well as vegetables like cucumbers, zucchini, eggplants.
I’m so glad that I was able to enjoy amazing veggies and greens form my parents’ garden. We cooked many dishes using these vegetables, including zucchini oladushki (fritters), sauteed veggies, salads, and so on. Finally we get tired of cooking eggplants and zucchini the same way. Moreover, I missed Dubai with its seductive aromas and herbs, rich and spice flavours in the air.. Fortunately, I brought my favourite spice – zaatar, and the decision was found: to make eggplant wedges with a Middle Eastern note! It was an easy and quick way to prepare eggplants. I drizzled it with aromatic olive oil, sweet molasses and of course zaatar, then served with a slice of country-style bread, yogurt and sliced fresh tomatoes!
Eggplant wedges
Ingredients
- Cut washed eggplants into 8-10 wedges. Sprinkle with some salt and leave for 20-30 minutes. Place under running water to wash off the salt. Arrange wedges onto lined baking tray.
- In a small bowl, combine olive oil, molasses and zaatar. Brush eggplant wedges with this mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
- Bake in preheated 180C for 25 minutes. Then increase the temperature to 200C and bake for 20-30 minutes more, or until eggplants wedges are soft and nicely browned.
- Arrange eggplant wedges onto a serving plate, sprinkle with sesame and pomegranate seeds.
- Serve with yogurt on side, or pour it over warm wedges.
Enjoy!
Sharing with all bloggers at Fiesta Friday party!
milkandbun 
Looks like an awesome to have eggplant. My eggplant plant in the garden didn’t do too well but the market has had some great ones. I’ll have to come back to this recipe.
Having a garden full of vegetables is an amazing thing:) it was in my parents’ garden
Absolutely delicious and beautiful presentation too, Mila! 🙂
Thank you!:)
Welcome back from holidays! I love the flavours of these eggplant wedges, especially with the drizzle of pomegranate molasses and the sprinkle of fresh pomegranate seeds.
Thank you! Pomegranate seeds always look attractive, right? 🙂
Yum.
Thanks for visiting!
Love pomegranate molasses and will try it on eggplant! Yummy dish.
I do love it too, and it goes nicely with eggplant! 🙂
This sounds so good! I love that your eggplant stayed so good-looking after cooking! Sometimes they kind of get ugly.
Ahahaha you’re right,Mimi, sometimes eggplants become very soft and not-pretty-looking 😉 but not this time
Simple and beautiful. This is my kind of dish. I hope you’re having a wonderful summer!
Hi Amanda! Here like on a frying pan – too hot 😀
Delicious – I love the way one of the veggies hangs from the plant with the sunlight interspersed. Never tried pomegranate molasses so will try to find it. Lovely summer veggie…
Pomegranate molasses has a sour-sweet taste, it reminds me balsamic vinegar; I think you can look it at Middle Eastern stores.
Lovely dish Mila! I love the mix of pomegranate and spices in there. Yum!
Thank you, Lili!
Likewise with others here, I am going to have to try pomegranate molasses too. This looks delish!
Thanks a lot for visiting and commenting! Molasses has a sour-sweet taste, it’s also nice in salad dressings. 🙂
This is very similar to what we fix from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty. I and never done it with pomegranate molasses but will have to try it. We have our own pomegranate tree 🙂 and make our own pomegranate molasses. We also are currently growing eggplant although with the weird weather this year, we have only gotten 1 eggplant. 😦 Once fall comes around, I expect it will go into high production – at least I am hopeful. 🙂
Oh goodness! Never thought that it’s even possible to make homemade molasses! I guess it take many hours to cook down the juice? I mean to prepare molasses from pomegranate juice, or how it’s made?😄 You are very lucky person -to have own pomegranate tree, and the garden itself must be big and beautiful..😀
Mila, the garden is a city home garden. It’s 17′ long x 7′ wide x 14″ deep. It is divided into 4 areas. We plant arugula in one area, Swiss chard in another, eggplant and turnips in the next and radishes, garlic and lettuce in the last. We have a variety of pots in which we grow a variety of chiles, mint, hoja santa (root beer plant), and herbs. We then plant herbs around all the trees as ground cover. We’re making an area out front to grow prickly pear cactus – the fruit is divine and the paddles are edible, too. You just have to make the best use of what little land you have.
As for making your own pomegranate molasses, it really isn’t that difficult or time consuming. It also is much better than what you buy commercially. 😀 One of these days I will do a post on it but it is easily found all over the Internet.
And I’ve heard a lot nice comments about this book, but never tried his recipes))
Beautiful pictures – and the thread about pomegranate molasses is promising … 😉
It’s such a tasty thing-this molasses!😁
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