Smoky Eggplant Spread
One of the many reasons why I adore my husband is his tendency to become obsessed with a certain ingredient or flavor and stop at nothing till he creates exactly what he wants. For instance, two years ago he declared that cauliflower was to be his vegetable of choice for that fall. I willingly hopped on board his brassica train and started to look for new and interesting ways to eat cauliflower. I would show him recipe after recipe only for him to hem and haw and say “no, that’s not quite it”. At first this would annoy me. It would annoy you too if your perfectly honed Pinterest feed started exclusively to show you cauliflower soup after cauliflower soup. But I’ve learned (after a decade of marriage) that his gut instincts, when it comes to food, always lead us to greener pastures.
This summer he turned his attention to eggplant. This wasn’t too much of a stretch for us since we’ve always been into eggplant, thanks in part to America’s Test Kitchen’s eggplant Parmesan and Ottolenghi’s inspiring obsession with it. We love eggplant in almost any form, grilled, fried, steamed, roasted. But this time Brad was particularly obsessed with perfecting a smoky eggplant spread. He wanted a similar flavor profile to baba ganoush, smoky and lightly acidic but every recipe we tried he would hem and haw and say “no, that’s not quite it”. Then, one fateful day we came across Lutenitsa. We had no idea what it was but on the menu, underneath the name, it had those two magic words ‘smoked eggplant’ so we ordered it without giving it a second thought. What a glorious discovery it was.
Lutenitsa is a vegetable spread common in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian cuisines. It’s loaded with vegetables like peppers, tomatoes and sometimes even carrots. Like all good regional foods it comes in many varieties: smooth; with bits; with small spicy peppers and eggplant; and spicy or mild. If you were to look it up online, you would be hard pressed to find two recipes the same. Since we were after a more eggplant forward dish we inverted the common recipe ratios a bit and added more eggplant and reduced the peppers and tomatoes.
Guys, I am in love with this spread. I’ve taken to buying way too much eggplant. When Brad sees it and inevitably asks what it’s for, I sheepishly grin, bat my eyelashes and ask if he’ll make me more lutenitsa. How can he say no? It is absolutely wonderful with fresh pita or naan. I’ve taken to spreading it on my toast in the morning to accompany a fried egg. It’s great in a wrap with yogurt, cucumber, and spiced chickpeas. The point is, the applications are endless with this dish and I encourage you to give it a try.
This recipe has a few time-consuming steps but they are for the most part fairly hands off and, since the goal is to literally burn things, you can’t really mess it up. Roasting the eggplants and peppers takes time but aside from flipping them every 10 -15 minutes you are not chained to the oven. And cooking it on the stove just requires the occasional stir. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Smoky Eggplant Spread
Ingredients:
- 3 medium or 2 large eggplants
- 2 bell peppers (red, yellow or orange)
- 3 garlic cloves (wrapped in a little foil pouch)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 8 cherry tomatoes or 1 large tomato
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon nigella seeds (optional)
Instructions:
- Preheat your boiler on hi heat.
- Prick the eggplant all over with a knife and place on a large cookie sheet covered with foil. Add the peppers and garlic to the side of the pan. Place the pan in the oven so that the eggplant sits about 4 to 6-inches below the broiler. Cook the eggplant for about 60-75 minutes turning every 15 minutes. (Once the eggplant is completely charred it will look like something went terribly wrong. It’s ok, it’s supposed to look like that) The peppers will cook in about 15-20 minutes and will need to be flipped every 5 minutes. The garlic only needs to be in the oven for 15 minutes, no flipping needed you just want to roast them.
- Once the peppers are nicely charred (read: very black) place them in a bowl and cover with foil for 10-15 minutes. Peel the skin off and remove stems and seeds and roughly chop.
- Scoop out the flesh from the cooled eggplant and place it in a colander set over a bowl to drain for about an hour.
- Once you have your eggplant and peppers prepared, heat the oil a small pot over medium heat and add the tomato paste and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the eggplant, peppers, garlic, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cook on low heat for 1 hour. Let it cool for a bit the place the cooked mixture into a food processor with the lemon juice and purée till smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste and more lemon if you prefer a brighter flavor.