Food, Home & Lifestyle
Veggie Spread: Roasted Eggplant Salad With Quick Lemon Paste & Quick-Pickled Chilies
Lesson time 21:16 min
The first bite is with the eye. Yotam demonstrates the appeal of an abundant display with this eggplant salad recipe. He also prepares two more delicious condiments, preserved lemon paste and pickled chilies.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Veggie Spread • Quick Lemon Paste • Quick Pickled Chilies • Roasted Eggplant Salad
Teaches Modern Middle Eastern Cooking
James Beard Award–winning chef Yotam Ottolenghi teaches you his recipes for delicious Middle Eastern platters layered with color and flavor.
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[00:00:02.91] - I've always loved vegetables. I remember them from childhood from the markets in Jerusalem, but I also remember throughout my life, always being drawn to the market to where the vegetables are at their best, their most impressive. Whenever you go into one and you see a proud person putting their display and going, wow, look at that, that's what I remember from markets. That's what I remember from vegetables. [00:00:29.71] [MUSIC PLAYING] [00:00:36.00] I'm going to make a vegetable spread, and it's something that goes back to my childhood in Jerusalem loving vegetables, but I feel that I've become an expert since about 20 years, I had a little store in Notting Hill in London, which started as really, a place where you buy fresh salads and vegetables. And what we did there is kind of recreate the Middle Eastern market-- the souk with cooked vegetables. So there's piles of beautiful platters with eggplants and zucchinis and tomatoes and rice salads. And it's like-- it's like this Aladdin cave of delights. [00:01:14.85] And the way when you walk into one of the shops, one of the cafes, you can actually see all that unfolding in front of you. And putting all those vegetables out there is really a little bit like what the market stall holder does in their market. They say, look at me. And you draw a lot of attention to yourself when you put these display of vegetables on the table. People look and they are impressed. [00:01:39.33] This is actually what I'm going to do with my vegetable spread. I'm going to create three vegetable dishes that look great, say, eat me, and just celebrate vegetables as they should. [00:01:52.34] [MUSIC PLAYING] [00:01:57.72] So aubergines-- or you can call them eggplants, if you like, you can choose-- it's something that always appears on the Ottolenghi salad display. It's iconic. People love aubergines. There's something meaty about them and they're really, really good at absorbing flavors. And if you want to feature flavor, put it on the aubergine-- the world will love you. [00:02:27.81] For my roasted eggplant salad, I'm going to make a quick preserved lemon paste. Preserved lemons are something really magical. It's three ingredients-- lemons, lemon juice, and salt that allow the lemon to break down, for all the oils to start giving their flavors, and for the skins to soften. And it gives you a real perfumed aroma of lemons. And we use it a lot in the kitchen for sauces, for salsas, to finish things off. But you do need to give it a good two, three weeks to really come to its own even longer than that. [00:03:01.05] So I'm going to make a real cheats preserved lemon paste. So something like that, but without all the time it takes for it to come together. And this is something you can have in a jar in the fridge and you will always enjoy. Just starting by thinly slicing some lemons. And you really want to make sure there's no seeds there. So just kind of have a look through, rummage through. If the...
About the Instructor
One of the most influential chefs working today, Yotam Ottolenghi creates dishes that layer color and flavor for maximum impact. Now the James Beard Award winner teaches you simple steps for making and mixing Middle Eastern–inspired recipes. Learn how to make generous platters—mezze and brunch spreads to homemade condiments, stunning stand-alones, and delicious vegetables—so you can entertain with ease.
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Yotam Ottolenghi
James Beard Award–winning chef Yotam Ottolenghi teaches you his recipes for delicious Middle Eastern platters layered with color and flavor.
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