Vegan Cooking - Muhammara

It took me many evenings and many finger licks, but I feel like I finally got this recipe right! This meal is all about the sauce. You can literally serve Muhammara with anything but I prefer using it either as a dipping with some salted crackers or with eggplant. Because Muhammara is a sweet sauce, I love to combine it with something salty. Yes, I am that kid that puts both cheese and jam on the same sandwich. I just love the combination of salty and sweet. 

Another thing I want to mention, before you head to your local market to get your ingredients, is the plate I served this meal on. It was hand-made by a woman called Sandra Lintermans. I absolutely love her work and the entire process of how she makes her ceramics is very interesting! Her work exists of earthy colored plates in all sizes. Even a Macdo hamburger would look gorgeous on one of her plates! You really need to check out her blog if you want to see the cutest tea cups on earth. She literally makes them in all the colors no one knew existed.
Sandra's ceramics collection will be available in Antwerp soon! I suggest you stop by at Atelier Assemblé on the 11th of october and take a look at the wonderful "pop-up" collection she'll be having there until the 8th of november. All the links for the shop and her blog will be down bellow! 

(serves 4)

what you need:

• 2 small red bell peppers
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed
• 1/2 cup walnuts/almonds (I suggest using walnuts for a dipping but almonds for the eggplant dish) + a little extra to serve
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 teaspoon chili flakes
• Basil to serve
• 3 eggplants

What you do:

Muhammara

1. Grill the red bell peppers till the skin is slightly brown (+/- 17min). Peal them as soon as they are cooled off and remove the seeds and stems.
2. Toast the cumin seed in a little pan and grind it until it's more like a powder and less like seeds. Got that?
3. Toast the walnuts/almonds.
4. Now put all off the ingredients (apart from the eggplant) in a food processor and blend until it's a smooth mixture.

Eggplant

1. Slice the eggplants and put them on a baking plate. 
2. top with olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Grill for about 10minutes.

Serving

1. Lay a few slices of eggplant on each plate.
2. Top with the muhammara, almonds/walnuts and basil.

For the plates:

Atelier Assemblé

Leopold de Waelstraat 30
2000 Antwerpen
+32 3 2160306
www.assemble.be

CLICK HERE for more info on Sandra Linterman's ceramics.

Happy cooking! - Parpies