I have been going to the market every Saturday morning. I love taking Julia with me and scoping out veggies and fruits together. Although, I think that I have more fun than she does. :) She does like to pick out the fruits… raspberries and blueberries to be exact. They are her favorites.
As you may already know, it is eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash season. Since I love to buy things that are in season, I have been buying them every week. I love roasting them with some shallots, olive oil, and whatever herb or other veggie that I have in the fridge. Julia loves them also. The first time I made them, she inhaled them. She does not seem to mind eating them regularly either. I have been serving them over salad, in pasta, or just as a side dish.
I have kind of gotten bored of just eating them as is, so I decided to seek a new dish. My sister mentioned this dish that included eggplant and mango… the recipe is called “Soba Noodles with Eggplant and Mango” and can be found in the cookbook called Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi. My sister also informed me that Heidi Swanson of 101cookbooks included a rendition of the recipe in her blog. After reading the recipe, I was sold. It sounded really delicious and thought that Julia could probably eat it as well, the veggies at least. I read both versions of the recipe and I decided to follow Heidi Swanson’s version… I really do not have any specific reason of why I did that. They are very similar, so I am sure that either version would yield super results.
The recipe was indeed delicious! And Julia loved it too! She loved the veggies, of course. She also liked the noodles. She did not eat too many noodles, but she liked them. I was unsure if she would really eat it after reading the recipe more closely since it required garlic and crushed red pepper. It was definitely a little spicy. But she did not seem to mind it. I am so proud of her!! She never ceases to amaze me… she loves everything that I cook for her. I am so lucky!
I do want to mention that I did make a few adjustments to the recipe. I decided that instead of pan frying the eggplant, I would just roast it, since it is easier, for me at least. I also added some zucchini and yellow squash, which I also roasted along with the eggplant. I did not use tofu or red onion. Since I roasted the veggies with some shallots, I decided that it was enough onion. Plus I really dislike raw onion. The mango that I used was super ripe, which I think that added some liquid to the dish. I kind of liked it that way. The recipe requires removing as much liquid as possible when draining the noodles. I did not mind it a little liquidy… I do not like dry pasta. I also only used 1 garlic clove, since I do not like a lot of garlic and thought that Julia might not like it either. One thing that I did not like about the dish is the difficulty of incorporating all of the ingredients. I found it hard to mix everything together. I find it to be the same with any stringy noodle though, so I should not have been too surprised. Ha!
The recipe is definitely a keeper! I apologize for the lack of a photo. You can just check it out in the cookbook or on 101cookbooks… both photos are beautiful. Plus my photo would probably not have given it justice anyway. :)
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