Chopped tomato and roasted eggplant salad

We're entering the party season and the calender at Shuki and Louisa is REALLY feeling it. With catering jobs, felafel pop ups and orders for dips on the up and up, the rest of the year is set to be eaten up with chopping, peeling, markets and filling the car with boxes of vegetable and staring again. It's such a great time of year though and it's hard not to feel a kind of exhausted joy about dishing up lots of delicious food.

It's times like these you need a really good lunch! We always stop at midday and feed ourselves a good lunch no matter how busy we are. Working through or eating a quick pita on the run always ends up making you feel lousy at the end of the day. Today, as it hit 35 at midday, Camille and I sat in the back yard in the shade and fell on this salad. It was so delicious. It's just the kind of thing we love to mix up and pile inside pitas to keep us going for the afternoon.

The eggplants were covered in plenty of oil and I put a tray of water in the oven as they were roasted to create steam and make sure the eggplants didn't dry out. The warm eggplants were mixed with tomatoes, salt, lots of olive oil, lemon juice, corriander and mint. Then a bit of creamy tahini on top, with sumac. I really love the way the tahini, tomato and lemon juices pool together in the bottom of the bowl for this one. Such a good, easy lunch or dinner for a hot day or night!

Chopped tomato and roasted eggplant salad

Preheat the oven to 200C. Dice one large eggplant and toss with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and a big pinch of salt. Place them in the oven with a tray of water underneath and roast, turning occasionally for around 30-40 minutes until they are starting to brown and are soft through. While the eggplants are roasting, mix 2tbs of tahini with half a cup of water, a little lemon juice, salt and a little olive oil. Mix til smooth and creamy.

Place in a bowl with 4 diced ripe tomatoes, olive oil to coat, salt to taste and the juice of one lemon. Add a handful each of coriander and mint and toss gently. Lay on a platter and top with tahini and sumac.