In the front yard of the house I grew up in, there stood a pomegranate tree. Sound idyllic? Hardly: this thing was a bone of contention in our family.

As kids, my brother and I (who did not do our own laundry) loved to pick the pomegranates, bang them open against the tree trunk, and then wedge out the seeds with our fingernails, staining our shirts and shorts and fingers in the process.

My mom (who did our laundry) pleaded with us not. to eat. the pomegranates., because nothing is less fun than coming home from work to a pile of permanently-stained laundry.

So for a long time, pomegranates were off the table–or at least, on the down low.

Fast forward twenty years. I still love the sweet-tart taste of pomegranates, and now I can incorporate them whenever I wish. This recipe makes perfect use of them, and is a great way to take advantage of this delightful bridge season, when pomegranates have just arrived, but eggplants are still around. The eggplant is almost meaty, and is perfectly offset by the tang of the buttermilk-yogurt dressing and the zing of the pomegranate seeds.

And preparation is dead simple: just slice the eggplants in half, score them, and while they’re roasting, make the sauce.

The only tricky bit is removing the pomegranate seeds. I have found the best way to tackle this is to cut the pomegranate in half horizontally, place a bowl in the sink, and hold one half over the bowl with the cut side against my palm. Then, I rap a wooden spoon on the back of the pomegranate, causing the seeds to fall into the bowl. At the end, I fish out the any bits of white membrane that may have fallen into the bowl.

Oh–and I wear an apron, because I enjoy doing laundry about as much as my mom used to.

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Roasted eggplant with buttermilk-yogurt dressing and pomegranate seeds

Serves 6 as a starter or side
Adapted ever so slightly from Yotam Ottolenghi’s classic vegetarian cookbook, Plenty

Ingredients

3 large, long eggplants
1/3 cup olive oil
2 1/2 teaspoons lemon thyme leaves, plus a few wholes sprigs to garnish (regular thyme is okay if that’s what you have on hand)
sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper
1 pomegranate (or about 3/4 cup seeds, if you buy them already seeded)
1 1/2 teaspoons za’atar (see notes)
3/4 cup plus two tablespoons buttermilk
3/4 cup Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a drizzle to finish
2 small garlic cloves, minced
pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400F (204C). Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise, cutting straight through the green stalk. (Don’t eat the stalk—it just looks nice when you serve the eggplants.) Using a small, sharp knife, then make a few long x-shaped cuts into the eggplant. These don’t need to be terribly deep–maybe half the depth of the eggplant.

Place the eggplant halves, cut side up, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the cut sides with olive oil. Sprinkle the thyme leaves and salt and pepper over the top. Place in oven and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, at which point the flesh should be nicely browned. (Mine took 35 minutes flat, so be sure to start checking early.) Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

While the eggplant is roasting, remove the seeds from the pomegranate using your favorite method. (I describe mine in the recipe headnotes.)

Make the sauce by stirring together the buttermilk, yogurt, 2 tablespoons olive oil, garlic, and salt.

To serve, place the eggplant on a serving dish (or leave on the baking dish, if you wish). Drizzle liberally with the sauce, then sprinkle with the za’atar and pomegranate seeds. Finish with a few sprigs of lemon thyme and a drizzle of olive oil.

Notes

On the za’atar: za’atar is a blend of thyme, toasted sesame seeds, sumac, oregano and/or marjoram often found in Middle Eastern cuisine. You can find it at any Middle Eastern market, and at some grocery stores. I would strongly recommend buying some: it is useful on greek yogurt as a spread, on roasted vegetables, on eggs, and so on. If you don’t have any, I would either skip it or do a light sprinkling of dried thyme and sumac.

How to serve: I enjoyed this for dinner with lamb meatballs, pita, and a cucumber salad. For lunch the next day, it was plenty to have this just with a bit of pita and an extra drizzle of the sauce.