Ajvar

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Roasted red peppers and aubergine dip or spread, a Fairtrade rework of a fat free vegan recipe. This is an eastern European dish, e.g. Macedonia.

Quantities are for 2 pots of dip.

This recipe contains the following types of ingredient: plants and fungi.

Ingredients

3
red medium bell peppers
1
medium aubergine
10
Zaytoun FAIRTRADE black olives
Zaytoun FAIRTRADE olive oil
3-5 cloves
garlic
1
FAIRTRADE lemon
1 tsp
paprika
1/4 - 1/2 tsp
chilli pepper
to taste
salt

Method

Cut open the peppers and remove stem, seeds, and white membranes. Flatten the peppers out on a rack to go under the grill and grill them skin side up to the heat until they blacken.

When the peppers are done, using a fork, remove the blackened bits and discard them. N.B. You won’t get all the skin black, and you probably won’t get all the black bits off. That’s OK.

Meanwhile, remove the stalk from the aubergine, slice in two lengthways, place on an oiled baking tray and bake in the oven, gas mark 4 (180 °C; 350 °F) for 30 minutes.

Juice the lemon, skin the garlic, pit the olives.

Once the aubergine is cooked, scoop out the flesh from the halves and discard the skins.

Put the aubergine flesh, lemon juice, garlic, olives, paprika, chilli and salt in a blender and blend to a smooth paste.

Add the red peppers and either (most authentic version) pulse the blender for a second or two leaving the peppers with some texture, or blend until smooth.

Chill in the fridge.

To serve:

Serve chilled with pitta bread or crackers.

Variations:

Experiment with different varieties of peppers and be prepared for a surprise.