Zaalouk - Moroccan Roasted Eggplant And Tomato Salad/Dip
Zaalouk is a Morrocan eggplant and tomato dish with warming spices, fresh herbs and olive oil. It's a delicious seasonal summer appetizer and goes great with flatbread or toasted sourdough.
Roast in the oven at 250°C or 482°F until soft. Takes about 20 minutes. If it needs longer, give it longer. the eggplant needs to be fuly cooked and soft.
When cooked remove the flesh and roughly chop it up. Set aside until needed.
For the tomatoes(optional step. You can also chop the tomatoes whole seeds and all. It's just more rustic.)
Blanch, peel and deseed the tomatoes. Press the juice from the seeds by rubbing through a sieve. Dice into large pieces and set aside along with the juice.
Cooking the zaalouk
Heat a skillet with oil until it just starts to smoke. The aubergine and tomatoes are still watery and we want to condense that all into a homogenous creamy chunky stew.
Once the skillet is hot, turn the heat to medium and add the eggplant along with the garlic. Cook and stir for a few minutes taking care not to burn it.
Next, add the tomatoes along with the juice if you used fresh tomatoes. Let it stew for a few minutes until they start breaking up a bit.
Add the spices along with the salt and sugar. Cook a bit longer.
When it's ready it's should not be wet but nice and creamy. You'll know when it's ready.
Give it a taste and adjust the seasoning if you want. Add the lemon juice little by little according to your taste along with the chopped herbs. Let it cool down to room temperature.
Serving
Put into a bowl or keep in the pan before drizzling with plenty of olive oil, adding some more herbs and freshly cracked black pepper. Serve with flatbread or flour tortillas along with optional dukkah or za'atar seasoning.
Notes
Storage instructions - Once made you can store it airtight in the fridge for up to 4 days or for up to 6 months in the freezer. To reheat simply do so in a pot, pan or microwave.
Tip - These types of dishes are always better eaten the next day.
Tomatoes - You can use tinned tomatoes but sweet seasonal varieties work best. Make sure to adjust the acidity by adding sugar to your taste.
Eggplant - Use firm good quality eggplants. Oversized hollow feeling eggplant will lose a lot of water and not add much flavour.
Spices - For best results toast your own cumin and grind in a spice grinder. Smoked paprika is not traditionally used but it does make the dish better. Highly recommended.
Garlic - You can leave out the garlic or replace it with roasted garlic instead.
Herbs - You can use whatever herbs you want. Try tarragon, chervil, dill and chicves.
Sugar - The taste needs to be balanced as the tomatoes will give acidity. Use whatever sweetener you prefer. Sugar, honey, stevia all work.