Rukmini Iyer
Rukmini’s Aubergine & Goat’s Cheese Burger Stacks
Rukmini Iyer
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
2 large, evenly sized aubergines
2 x 100g rind-on goat’s cheese wheels
A handful of fresh lemon thyme sprigs
Olive oil, for brushing
Sea salt flakes
Freshly ground black pepper
Runny honey
Crusty bread rolls, to serve
Veg Portions / Serving: 1
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.
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
Kids in the kitchen
Let the kids assemble the burger stacks and drizzle them with honey and thyme when cooked.
Activities
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.
Sensory
Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.
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