Eggplant and cashew nut dip for crudités

I love starting dinner with an exciting crudité platter; it conveys to my guests that the meal will be healthy and the food will be delicious. Vegetable dips are an integral part of any table; they are packed with flavour and a lovely substitute for meat-heavy patés and rillettes. However, dips can be a double-edged sword; most commercial dips are packed with emulsifiers and chemicals and taste horrible. In India, they are also loaded with fats, mayo, and cream cheese and are sold in the health food section as pretenders. I have several dips from around the world on this blog, each healthy and loaded with flavour. This is one of those dips that you need to make often.

This dip is a variation, an upgrade, of the famed North Indian "bharta," or roasted eggplant. However, it is loaded with flavours from the chaat masala and tomatoes. The roasted eggplant adds tremendous creaminess to the dish that pops with tartness and spice. The roasted cashew nuts add both a lovely nuttiness and a wonderful bite. You can serve this more traditionally with naan bread, but I prefer fresher vegetables on this platter.

Vineet Bhatia moved to London in 1993 with little more than a suitcase full of books, a lofty ambition, his love of Indian cuisine and a passion for cooking. Fast-forward a few years, and Vineet is now a globally renowned chef and seen as the face of progressive modern Indian cuisine, having published successful cookery books, recorded multiple TV series, opened several restaurants across the globe and is the first Indian chef-patron to have been awarded a Michelin star. This is a very contemporary Indian cookbook filled with fantastic recipes. Most recipes tend to be complex, but occasionally, there will be simpler ones, like this one. However, the recipes are wonderful, packed with flavour and beautifully balanced.

For more recipes from this amazing cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant

olive oil spray

Salt, to taste

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon oil

1/2 onion, finely minced

2 tablespoons tomato purée

4 tablespoons cashew nuts, lightly roasted and roughly chopped

2 scallions, finely chopped

1/2 tomato, finely diced

Juice of 1/2 lime + as needed

1 teaspoon chilli powder, or to taste

1 1/2 teaspoon chaat masala

3 tablespoons cilantro, minced

Salt, to taste

To serve, a mix of any of the following vegetables:

Cucumbers

Carrots

Red, yellow or green peppers

White radish

Zucchini or yellow squash

Cauliflower or broccoli

Beets

Cherry tomatoes

Pita chips

Naan bread

To serve, combine any four vegetables, including carrots, radishes, raw beets, cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, and cherry tomatoes, or as desired.

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

Cut the eggplant into 6-8 wedges longitudinally. Spray with olive oil and sprinkle on the salt and pepper. Roast 30-35 minutes until the eggplant is browned and soft. Remove and cool.

While the eggplant is roasting, add the oil to a small frying pan and sauté the onions until they are deep golden. Add the tomato purée and cook until the tomato is thickened and the oils are poling on the surface. Cool.

Scrape the eggplant flesh from the skins and mince finely with a knife. It should be very soft and smooth. Mix in the fried onion-tomato paste and all other ingredients. Taste for salt, spice and tartness. The purée should have a bold flavour and be lovely. Chill for at least 3 hours.

To serve, bring it up to room temperature. Serve with the vegetables arranged on a platter.