Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for black bean and ginger roast aubergines | Rice

The dressing in this recipe elevates anything into a great quick dinner. With peanuts, lime and chilli, it can go on pretty much everything, but it’s particularly good on just-roasted aubergines. Add broccoli, rice and a nice soft-boiled egg, and you’ve got all your food groups in one easy, 30-minute dish.

Black bean and ginger roast aubergines with chilli-lime peanuts and rice

Prep 15 min
Cook 30 min
Serves 2, generously

200g Tenderstem broccoli
2 large aubergines, sliced into half-moons
50g black bean sauce (the liquid kind, not the concentrated jarred one)
2½ tbsp sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated
5cm ginger, peeled and finely grated
150g basmati rice
2 room-temperature eggs
45ml sesame oil
Zest and juice (about 70ml) of 2 limes
2 tsp sea salt flakes
30g coriander, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
50g salted peanuts, roughly chopped

Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6. Put the broccoli in a bowl, then pour over a kettleful of boiling water and leave it to blanch for two minutes (this helps give the broccoli a better texture after roasting). Drain well, then tip into a roasting tin and add the aubergines, black bean sauce, sesame oil, garlic and ginger. Mix well to coat, then roast for 30 minutes.

Put the rice and 300ml just-boiled water in a deep heatproof bowl, cover with a snugly fitting plate, then cook in the microwave on a medium setting (in my microwave, that’s 800 out of 1,000W) for 10 minutes. Leave it to stand for 10 minutes and you’ll have perfectly fluffy rice. (Alternatively, cook the rice in boiling water on the hob, if you prefer; the microwave is my family’s foolproof method, though).

Meanwhile, cook the eggs for four minutes in a pan of boiling water for runny yolks, or six minutes for jammy, then put them in a bowl of cold water to stop them cooking any further. Then peel and halve them.

Mix all the remaining ingredients in a bowl to make a dressing. Once the aubergines and broccoli are cooked, stir a third of the dressing through the rice and a third through the aubergines, then taste both for salt, adjusting as needed.

Serve the rice in warmed bowls topped with the roast vegetables, the peeled and halved boiled eggs and the remaining peanut dressing.