Boozy Roasted Aubergines & Red Onions

Vegan

Vegetable side dishes

If you love aubergines and red onions as much as we do at the VVF, this simple yet luxurious dish is heaven on a plate! Although it isn't a fast recipe it is easy to prepare and most of the cooking is done in the oven. Do marinate the vegetable mixture if you have time as this will allow the flavours to mix beautifully - again, it just needs to be covered and left for a couple of hours.

Serves:

Serves 3-4

Time:

50-60 minutes - 40 of this is baking time - plus up to two hours marinating if you can manage it!

Gluten free

No nuts

No sesame

No soya

Reduced fat

Reduced sugar

Ingredients:

3 red onions, peeled and quartered.(When quartering onions, try to leave some of the root base attached as this helps prevent them falling apart) Small bunch of fresh thyme.(Pick leaves off as carefully as possible. It doesn’t matter if you leave some stems attached but get rid of any particularly woody bits) 2 medium aubergines Half a lemon, scrubbed and cut into about 8 chunks 1 tsp olive oil A little salt 340ml/12fl oz sweet Marsala – or sweet sherry if you can’t obtain it

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.

2. Cut aubergine into chunks about same size as onion quarters.

3. Put prepared vegetables, lemon pieces and thyme into a large bowl, add olive oil and give a good swirl about so oil evenly distributed.

4. Now add a little salt, pour on Marsala/sherry and swirl again. (You can leave it all to marinate for up to 2 hours at this stage, if you have time.)

5. Place marinated vegetables and their liquid in a wide, shallow baking dish or tin, cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.

6. Remove foil, give dish a stir and bake uncovered for a further 10-15 minutes, until vegetables are slightly browned and cooking liquid has reduced to a few tablespoons of rich savoury syrup.