Mediterranean Eggplant and Goat’s Cheese Tower

From Harvest Vegetarian, Adam de Ath, New Holland, 2013.

My partner had cooked vegetables in the sous vide cooker and there were some left over so this recipe looked as though it would satisfactorily use some of them up.

I needed eggplants sliced and roasted. I had sous vide slices ready. Into the oven though I put some slices of sweet potato and slices of tomato to roast.

I had red capsicum slices done in the sous vide cooker so I did not have to roast them. I only needed to de-skin them.

I cut the leaves from a bunch of English spinach and dropped them into boiling salted water for 5 seconds them drained them and quickly cooled them in cold water. They were squeezed to remove excess liquid.

Now the tower was put together. The layers went as follows: tomato, eggplant, some basil from a tube (fresh basil was out of season), crumbled goat’s cheese, tomato, eggplant, sweet potato, goat’s cheese, spinach, capsicum, eggplant. I had given an occasional sprinkle of salt and pepper as the tower was built. On top, though not in the recipe, was a slice of fennel butter which I had left from another recipe. The tower went in the oven to warm through.

When it was served a commercial plum sauce was poured over.

Before making this you could tell that this would work. The ingredients are a classic combination except for the sweet potato that seemed to be an odd inclusion. It did not clash but it did have a noticeable difference to the other vegetables. The sweetness of the plum sauce I am still undecided on whether it was right or if it would have been better with a more Mediterranean-type sauce.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔