Good Eating: Eggplant Kiku & Sprout Salad

"Kiku is a Persian or Arabic dish that has many variations.  It came to Spain during the Moorish invasions where it took the form of the Spanish tortilla or Spanish omelet, with potatoes as a filling." (p.440 Nourishing Traditions)

The ingredients for Eggplant Kiku are:

• 2 eggplants
• sea salt
• 2 onions
• extra virgin olive oil
• 6 eggs
• 3 cloves of garlic
• juice of one lemon
• pepper 
• paprika

Without copying the recipe verbatim from my Nourishing Traditions cook book, I'll give you a brief layout of the recipe.

The first and most time consuming step is to salt the peeled and cubed eggplant.  Let it sit, draining in a colander for an hour or so.

Next, after the hour is up, rinse and drain the eggplant well and...

saute it in olive oil until soft.  When it's soft, mash it with a potato masher or something like that in another bowl.  (I forgot to take this pic... pardon that)

In the same pan you sauteed the eggplant, saute the onions until they look yummy (transparent and browning) then add the mashed eggplants and the garlic.

(Also forgot this picture...eek!) - Beat the eggs with some salt, the pepper, lemon juice and the paprika, add it all to the eggplant/onion/garlic mixture.

Next, pour the mixture into an oiled baking dish (I used a 9x13 baking dish) and bake for 30 minutes or so in a 375*F oven until its just browning on top.  Take it out of the oven, serve it up however you would like!

I served mine with a sprout salad using freshly sprouted sprout, and a homemade sesame ginger dressing (interested in the recipe? Leave a comment to let me know!), garnished with garden fresh tomatoes and freshly ground pepper.  In the picture above, I sprinkled my husbands with Parmesan cheese!  Every bite was delicious!  Try it and let me know what you think about it!

Happy cooking!