Persian Stuffed Vegetables with Walnuts, Pomegranate Seeds and Herbs

This is a traditional recipe from northern part of Iran and one of my childhood favourites. Thank you Farida for reminding me of this one:-)

Ingredients:

• 2 small Aubergines, peeled and thinly sliced lengthwise
• 4 large Tomatoes
• 1 large Onion, peeled and cut into chunks
• 4 cloves Garlic, crushed
• 100 g Walnuts
• 1 tbsp Pomegranate paste
• 1 Pomegranate, seeds only
• 1 tbsp fresh Parsley, chopped finely
• 1 tbsp fresh Mint, chopped finely
• 1 tsp Golpar powder (Optional)
• 4 tbsp Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 200 C/Gas mark 6.
• Cut the top of the tomatoes and empty tomatoes using a spoon. Pour the tomato seeds and juice into an electric blender.
• Add onion chunks, garlic cloves and walnuts to the blender and mix for about a minute until a smooth paste is formed.
• Remove the blender contents into a mixing ball and add pomegranate paste and seeds (Save 2 tbsp of the seeds for sprinkling later), herbs and salt and pepper and mix well.
• Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a frying pan and fry aubergine slices over medium heat for about 2 minutes on each side until slightly soft. Drain on kitchen towel.
• Place empty tomatoes on a lightly oiled baking sheet and fill them in with the stuffing mix.

• Place one fried slice of aubergine over the baking sheet and cover it with the stuffing mixture, then put another slice on top. Repeat this until you have a stack of 5 or 6 layers of aubergine. Repeat this with all aubergine slices.
• Drizzle some olive oil over tomatoes and aubergines and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
• Sprinkle with the rest of the pomegranate seeds before serving.