This is a beautiful dish, full of the flavours of summer. I like to use a firm goats cheese, rather than a soft one, as I like to 'shave' thin pieces of cheese over the salad (you could use pecorino or even parmesan if you don't like goats cheese), but soft cheese also works well dolloped over the salad. I love this as a main dish but it also works well as an accompaniment to chicken, lamb or fish.
Serves 4 as an accompaniment (or 2 as a main)
Ingredients
2 aubergines, sliced into 0.5cm slices
80g firm goats cheese
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 lemons, zested and juiced
2 crushed garlic cloves
1 1/2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Seeds from 1/2 a pomegranate
Large handful of finely chopped mint
Large handful of finely chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
Directions
Heat the olive oil in a wide frying pan and fry the aubergine (in batches if necessary, don't overcrowd the pan) until lightly golden.
Mix the lemon zest and juice, crushed garlic, vinegar and extra virgin olive oil and season with salt pepper.
Arrange the aubergine on a platter.
Drizzle over the dressing and scatter over the chopped herbs.
Shave over the goats cheese.
Sprinkle over the pomegranate seeds.