Harissa and honey roasted aubergines with tomato salsa, halloumi and spicy couscous

I wanted to make something different with my special aubergines from France, and this is the spicy dish I came up with. There are several components in this dish that go well together, and I also used my exquisite olive oil from France for the aubergines and the tomato salsa. I cooked this dish before I left to Finland, so sorry for the small delay in posting it.

Here are the ingredients and instructions to each part of this meal.

Tomato salsa:

4 tomatoes

1 small garlic

2 tbsp lemon juice

Black pepper to taste

Salt to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

It was lovely to have something raw and fresh with this dish, and I thought that this tomato salsa suited it perfectly. I combined some French heirloom tomatoes with a few from my own balcony.

Cube the tomatoes and chop the garlic finely. Season them with lemon juice, black pepper, salt and olive oil. Refrigerate for around half an hour to let the flavours blend together.

Roasted aubergines:

2 aubergines

2 tsp harissa

2 tbsp honey

1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp water

Make the marinade by combining harissa, honey, olive oil and water. Slice the aubergines lengthwise and roast them at 180C for about 40 minutes. Then brush them with the marinade and roast for further 10-15 minutes until the honey starts to caramelise. Turn the aubergine slices during the roasting to achieve an even coating.

Couscous:

1 cup couscous

1 cup water

1 garlic stock cube

1 red onion

1 small bell pepper

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

Chilli flakes to taste

1 tsp olive oil

Chop the bell pepper, red onion and garlic finely. Cook them in olive oil in a pan until soft. Season them with ground cumin, ground coriander and chilli flakes.

Bring garlic stock (water + garlic stock cube) to boil and remove it from the heat. Add the couscous and the contents of the pan to it and let rest under a lid for about 10 minutes.

Halloumi:

250 g halloumi

Vegetable oil for frying

Just fry long thin strips of halloumi in vegetable oil until golden brown.

Serve all components together and have some lovely red wine with it. Enjoy!

Your VegHog