Tomato-Buttered Eggplant Cornbread

Prep Slice eggplant into 1.5cm thick rounds and salt both sides with 0.5 tsp salt. Rest on paper towels 10 minutes, then pat dry. Dice the sauce onion. Mince garlic. Dice tomatoes. Whisk flaxseed with 60ml warm water in a small bowl and rest 5 minutes until thickened. Grate the sopa onion. Pick parsley leaves. Preheat oven to 400F.

Sear Brush eggplant rounds with 3 tbsp olive oil. Heat a heavy cast iron skillet over high heat 3 minutes until smoking. Char eggplant 3 minutes per side until edges blacken and flesh collapses. Lift to a plate.

Build 1 Reduce heat to medium. Add 2 tbsp olive oil to the same skillet with the sauce onion and cook 3 minutes until soft. Stir in garlic, paprika, red pepper flakes, oregano, and 0.25 tsp salt 60 seconds until fragrant. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, and 100ml water. Simmer 8 minutes until the sauce turns glossy and clings to a spoon.

Build 2 Whisk cornmeal, masa harina, 0.5 tsp baking powder, and 0.25 tsp salt in a bowl. Stir in flax slurry, oat milk, 2 tbsp olive oil, nutritional yeast, and grated sopa onion until a thick batter forms.

Bake Pour batter into a small oiled baking dish, smooth the top, and bake 22 minutes until the surface turns deep gold and a skewer comes out clean. Rest 5 minutes.

Build 3 Whisk tahini, lemon juice, and 1 tbsp warm water in a small bowl until pourable and pale.

Plate Cut a thick wedge of sopa cornbread and lay on a plate. Set charred eggplant rounds on top, spoon hot iskender tomato sauce generously over the eggplant so it pools on the cornbread, drizzle tahini across in zigzags, dust with sumac, and scatter parsley to finish.