Recipe from The Green Barbecue by Rukmini Iyer (Square Peg, 2021). Photography by David Loftus.
One of my favourite Spanish dishes is berenjenas con miel – aubergines, deep-fried in batter, served with honey. It occurred to me that goat’s cheese is just as lovely with honey as aubergine, and so these moreish burger stacks were born. The cheese melts between the aubergine slices, scented with thyme – perfect by themselves or squashed between crusty white rolls.
Method:
Cut the aubergines into 1cm slices, and the goat’s cheese into very thin rounds. Sandwich each piece of goat’s cheese between two similarly-sized slices of aubergine, along with a sprig of thyme. Brush both sides of the aubergine with oil and add a tiny pinch of sea salt flakes and black pepper.
Once your barbecue is ready, place the aubergine stacks on the grill and cook for 10–15 minutes per side, until the aubergine is cooked through and the cheese has melted. You can flip them every 5–6 minutes or so and give them a brush with olive oil.
Transfer to a serving platter, drizzle with honey, scatter over the remaining thyme, and serve with crusty rolls on the side.
No barbecue? Try cooking these under the grill or on a griddle pan instead.
Kids in the kitchen:
Let the kids assemble the burger stacks and drizzle them with honey and thyme when cooked.
Rukmini Iyer
Rukmini Iyer is the bestselling author of The Roasting Tin series selling a million copies to date (The Roasting Tin; The Green Roasting Tin; The Quick Roasting Tin, The Roasting Tin Around The World, Green Barbecue and Sweet Roasting Tin). She originally trained as a lawyer but left the industry to retrain as a chef and food stylist. Her aim is to transform Britain's midweek meals one roasting tin dinner at a time from omnivores to vegans, flexitarians to families or households of one or two.
