Grilled Aubergines

Appetizers & Snacks, Side Dish, Snack

Long aubergine slices, brushed with garlic oil and grilled in a cast iron pan until tender. The yogurt and dill sauce alongside is cool, sharp, and garlicky. Good as a starter, good as a side. Works straight off the grill or at room temperature, which makes it one of those recipes you can have ready before everyone sits down without any stress.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Servings 2

Ingredients 

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For the aubergines

• 2 aubergines
• 6 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
• 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
• salt and black pepper
• 3 sprigs coriander

For the yogurt and dill sauce

• 200 gr Greek yogurt full-fat
• 1 cloves garlic
• 1 handful dill fresh
• 1 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt and black pepper

For the fried garlic chips

• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tbsp olive oil extra virgin

Equipment

grill pan

frying pan

pastry brush

knife

chopping board

Instructions

1. Salt the aubergines

• Slice the aubergines lengthways into long, even slices about 1cm thick. Lay them out on a board or tray, sprinkle both sides with salt, and leave for 15 minutes. This draws out excess moisture and stops them soaking up too much oil during cooking. Pat dry with kitchen paper before grilling.

2. Make the garlic oil

• Mix the finely chopped or grated garlic into the olive oil in a small bowl. Season with salt and black pepper. This is what you brush onto the aubergine slices before and during grilling.

3. Make the yogurt and dill sauce

• Mix the Greek yogurt, crushed garlic, chopped dill, olive oil, and lemon juice together in a bowl. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve. The sauce is better made ahead so the flavours have time to come together.

4. Fry the garlic chips

• Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add the sliced garlic and fry gently, stirring regularly, for 2 to 3 minutes until golden and just crisp. Watch them carefully as they go from golden to burnt very quickly. Lift out with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper and set aside. They will crisp up further as they cool.

5. Grill the aubergines

• Heat the cast iron griddle pan over high heat until properly hot. Brush the aubergine slices generously with garlic oil on both sides. Grill in batches, a few slices at a time without crowding the pan, for 3 to 4 minutes per side until well charred and completely tender all the way through. Keep the cooked slices warm on a platter while you do the rest. Brush with a little extra garlic oil as each batch comes off the pan.

6. Serve

• Arrange the grilled aubergine slices on a large serving platter. Scatter the fried garlic chips over the top. Finish with fresh coriander leaves and serve the yogurt and dill sauce in a small bowl alongside.

Notes

• Don’t skip the salting step. It makes a real difference to the texture, stopping the aubergines from going soggy on the grill.
• The pan needs to be properly hot before the aubergines go in. If it’s not hot enough, they steam instead of char and you lose the whole point of the cast iron.
• Cook in batches. Crowding the pan drops the temperature and you end up with pale, soft slices instead of properly charred ones.
• Full-fat Greek yogurt is important for the sauce. Low-fat versions are too watery and the sauce won’t have enough body.
• The sauce keeps well in the fridge for a day or two, so it’s worth making it ahead.

About this recipe

I don’t remember any period in my life when I didn’t eat grilled aubergines. They are one of the simplest and most satisfying things you can make, and the south of France has been making them this way for centuries. The aubergine itself arrived in Provence via Arab trade routes in the Middle Ages, and the region took to it immediately. No wonder, as it is such a lovely vegetable. The warm, dry climate in the South of France suited the plant, and it quickly became as central to Provençal cooking as olive oil and garlic. You find it in ratatouille, stuffed with goat cheese, in gratins, and most simply of all, chargrilled over high heat with nothing much more than olive oil and garlic. That last version is the oldest approach, and it holds up.

What chargrilling does to aubergines

Chargrilling aubergine in a cast iron grill pan does something specific that other cooking methods do not replicate. The intense dry heat collapses the flesh completely, concentrating its mild, slightly smoky sweetness, while the direct contact with the pan leaves char marks that add bitterness and a faint smokiness you cannot achieve any other way.

The trick is to be patient. The pan needs to be properly hot before the aubergine goes in, and the slices need time to char properly on each side before you move them. If you rush it, you’ll end up with pale, soft slices with none of the flavour. Aubergine grilled in a pan that is not hot enough steams rather than chars, and steamed aubergine just taste different.

The garlic

Garlic works in two ways in this grilled eggplant recipe. The garlic oil brushed onto the slices before cooking seasons them from the outside as they grill. The heat mellows the sharpness and pushes its flavour into the flesh. The whole unpeeled cloves roasted separately in the oven are something else, they become soft, almost jammy inside, with very little raw pungency remaining. They are there as an extra to savour, not per se to season the chargrilled aubergine.

The yogurt and dill sauce

The yogurt and dill sauce is a cool, sharp counterpoint to the heat and richness to this grilled eggplant recipe. It is not a traditionally Provençal addition, but it works nicer then Ailoli in my opinion. Full-fat Greek yogurt has enough body and acidity to hold its own against chargrill aubergines, and dill’s slight anise flavour pairs well with both the aubergine and the garlic. If you can, make it ahead, the flavours improves with time in the fridge.

Why aubergine on grill needs the right pan

The quality of the char on these grilled aubergines depends entirely on your pan. A thin or poorly conducting pan produces uneven heat: some sections of the aubergine burn whilst others remain pale. A proper cast iron grill pan gets uniformly hot and stays that way throughout the cooking, which gives you consistent char marks and even cooking across every slice.

I recommend using the Staub cast iron grill pan for this chargrill aubergine recipe. The ridged surface creates the characteristic grill marks that make aubergine on grill look as good as it tastes, and the cast iron retains heat when the cold aubergine slices go in rather than dropping in temperature and losing the sear. The Staub’s black enamel interior handles the high heat needed for a proper char without any issue. For a grilled eggplant recipe where the char is everything, this is the right tool.

Serving aubergines grilled the Provençal way

In Provence, grilled aubergines are served warm rather than hot, which allows the flesh to settle and the flavours to develop. A drizzle of good olive oil, a scattering of fresh herbs, and the yogurt sauce alongside. Simple enough for a weeknight side dish, good enough to serve as a starter with bread and the roasted garlic on the side.