This is a delicious, light, fresh and flavorful dish with Grilled Eggplant, Zucchini, Hazelnut Pesto & Ricotta. This dish only requires 15 minutes of your time and is so easy to prepare. Serve this as a light lunch, main course or side dish. This dish is vegetarian, gluten, grain free and low carb.
Grilled vegetables doesn’t have to be boring and served plain. This dish is a great example of that! It is made using aubergine and zucchini only, which might sound boring, but does this really look boring? Not if you ask me! The grilled vegetables are served with a delicious and flavorful parsley & hazelnut pesto, pesto flavored ricotta, fresh greek yogurt and chopped hazelnuts. This dish is really so easy to make, with a few key ingredients yet taste amazing but fresh at the same time. It is perfect to serve as lunch, main course or as a side dish. This dish is vegetarian, gluten, grain free and low carb.
A few tips:
- I would recommend you to prepare the pesto in advance. I love when it gets to soak and absorb all the flavors for a while.
- Slice the aubergine into about 3-5 mm thick slices.
- Sprinkle the eggplant slices with salt and let it rest for at least 20 minutes. This step is optional but I really prefer to salt the eggplants before preparing them. This makes them more creamy, absorbing less oil and prevent them from ending up firm and fibrous.
- Slice the zucchini into 2-3 mm thin slices.
- I seasoned my ricotta with the pesto I used for this dish, but if you like you can season it with anything you like. Sun dried tomatoes, olives, garlic, spinach would be super delicious as well.
- Start by frying the aubergines since they are thicker. Fry them on medium/high heat until they have grill marks. You want them to both get soft and cooked though and get a nice surface. You don’t want them to get burnt and still be hard on the inside.
- Fry the zucchini on higher temperature, since they’re really think and you only want them to get grill marks and get a little warm, but not soggy and fully cooked though.
Ingredients for this Grilled Aubergine & Zucchini with Hazelnut Pesto & Ricotta:
- Aubergine
- Zucchini
- Ricotta
- Hazelnut & Parsley Pesto
- Greek yogurt
- Hazelnuts
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Grilled Aubergine & Zucchini with Hazelnut Pesto & Ricotta (Gluten Free)
Ingredients
- 1 Aubergine sliced lengthwise into 3-5 mm thick slices
- 1 Zucchini sliced lengthwise into 2-3 mm thick slices
- 100 g Ricotta
- 3/4 dl Hazelnut & Parsley Pesto
- 6-8 tbsp Greek yogurt
- Hazelnuts, to top roughly chopped
Instructions
- Prepare the pesto according to this Hazelnut & Parsley Pesto (Gluten, Grain Free & Low Carb) recipe.
- Preheat a grill pan over medium heat with some olive oil.
- Slice the aubergine and zucchini into think stripes lengthwise.
- Start by frying the aubergines since they take longer time. Fry for 2-3 minutes on each side.
- Next heighten the heat on the grill pan and fry the zucchini for 1-2 minutes on each side.
- Meanwhile combine ricotta with about 1/4 of the parsley and hazelnut pesto.
- When the zucchini is ready place on two plates.
- Top with pesto ricotta cheese, pesto, greek yogurt and rouchly chopped hazelnuts.
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