My friend and I went to lunch the other day. We went to The Chelsea Bistro. I love this place, it has a great ambience and the food is always excellent. We ordered our lunch and when it arrived one of the meals inspired me to write this recipe. I have always liked eggplant, carrots and anything with Moroccan spices. I didn’t make the flat bread, as much as I would love to claim that I did. Sometimes it is just easier to keep some in the freezer and take it out as you need it.

I used the Lebanese eggplants which are the long ones, because I liked the shape but you could use the more common one.

Recipe for Eggplant and Carrot Mixture

3 tablespoons of olive oil

4 Lebanese eggplants

1/2 cup of roasted pistachios ( in the oven)

3 carrots

1 onion

1 large cloves of garlic

Combine 1 teaspoon of each Paprika, coriander seed, cassia, allspice, chilli, cloves, cumin and cardamon.

Method

First slice the eggplant into thin slices and sprinkle with salt. Leave in a colander for half an hour to allow the moisture and bitterness to leave the eggpant.

Peel and slice the carrots.

Slice the onion

dice the garlic

Add the olive oil to the fry pan, sauté the onion and garlic until till soft. Add pistachios leaving a few for decorating the plates.

Wash off the salt from the eggplant and then toss in the pan with carrot and seasoning.

Fry for ten minutes until eggplant is cooked but not falling apart.

Hummus

Ingredients

200g canned chickpeas

2 tbsp lemon juice or more

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

salt

100ml tahini (sesame seed paste) optional

4 tbsp water

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp paprika

Method