What you need:
- 3 mid to smaller size aubergines
- 250g precooked chickpeas
- 150g cashews soaked in water overnight or cooked for 10minutes until soften
- 2 spoons of tahini sauce
- 3 garlic cloves
- 5 sun dried oil preserved tomatoes
- 4 spoons of olive oil
- salt, fresh thyme
Sauces and decoration:
- about 150ml vegan bechamel sauce or about 150ml peeled plum tomato sauce with a bit of salt and thyme
- sliced almonds and persil
How to make it:
- Cut the aubergines in long thin slices, lay them on a backing paper add a bit of salt and leave it aside.
- Prepare the filling for the rolls: put the chickpeas, cashews, tahini, garlic and tomatoes in the food processor. Blend it all well into a thick creamy paste adding one by one spoons of olive oil, salt and thyme to taste at the end.
- Grill the aubergine slices. Add just a bit of olive oil to the grill pan and grill on medium heath both sides of the aubergine slices for just a little while like 30seconds each, until they get that nice grill pattern and soften so they can be rolled.
- Make the rolls. Add a tea spoon of the filling to each slice and roll them into a small packages of goodness placing them next to each other in a backing pan and put in the oven preheated at 180-200C degrees for some 10minutes or until nice and golden. No need to add any oil to the pan, the aubergines soaked enough of it during the grilling time.
- Add the bechamel or tomato sauce, whatever you like, I’m making both versions and love them equally. The only difference is the bechamel looks better in photos:) Pour the sauce to cover the bottom of the pan and return to the oven for a few more minutes. The rolls shouldn’t be completely covered by the sauce, just until half or so, so the exact quantity of the sauce depends on the size of the pan.
- When done, decorate with some fresh chopped persil and almonds slices.
For the vegan bechamel sauce I blend 100g of presoaked cashews, adding a pinch of salt and some rice or soy milk until its thick and runny. And if you pop in it some garlic and herbs, this sauce is delicious served raw over the rolls.
As with all the recipes, I invite you to play with this one too and let me know what delicious tastes you came up with.