Recipes curated especially for Destination readers by very special local chefs.

Top Chef season 3 participant Chef Areej surprisingly never fancied cooking until the age of 17. She used to bribe her way out of cooking chores in the household where she grew up. To get away with it though, she had to remain in the kitchen during meal preps to convince her family that she was the one actually doing all the cooking for the day. Curiosity inevitably stemmed from her periods of observation, and at some point decided to just go ahead and try cooking. With some encouragement from her parents, she ended up finding her true passion in life, quitting her day job to pursue being a chef full-time. She aspires to one day open a culinary school in Jeddah in support of Saudi talents who are interested in creating a name for themselves in the culinary world.

Instagram:  chefareejals

Recipe Name: Aubergine Fattah

Here is Chef Areej’s fulfilling Aubergine Fattah dish that can be put together quickly in 30 minutes. It comes in handy when your day has been long and you find yourself running out of time to make Iftar/suhoor.

Yield: Serves 2
Total Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2   medium Aubergines
2   large potatoes
Arabic bread
Can of hummus
1   Pomegranate
Parsley

Red Sauce:

3   tablespoons of olive oil
1   minced large onion
4   mashed garlic cloves
1   large tomato cut into cubes
3   tablespoons of tomato paste
1   teaspoon of vinegar
1   teaspoon of cumin
1   teaspoon of paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

Yoghurt Sauce:

2   yoghurt cartons
2   mashed garlic cloves
1   tablespoon of dried mint
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

– Dice the Arabic bread, tomatoes, and aubergines into small equal squares.

– Fry the Arabic bread, potato, and aubergine cubes till they become golden in color.

– In a separate frying pan, add olive oil, onion and garlic cloves till they wilt and become caramelized. Next add in the tomatoes, tomato paste, and the above-mentioned spices to complete the red sauce. Stir until the mixture becomes homogeneous.
In a bowl, mix all the ingredients mentioned above for the yoghurt sauce and set it aside.

– Put everything layered together in a clay pot for serving. From bottom to top, start with a layer of red sauce, then add a layer of potatoes, followed by a layer of aubergines, and conclude with a layer of Arabic bread covered in yoghurt sauce. Repeat the process as many times as necessary.

– Garnish with pomegranate.