Vegan Eggplant and Tomato Piadina

Piadinas are thin flatbreads originally from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. You can buy them ready made, but the traditional recipe uses lard, so if you want a vegan version, look for ones made with olive oil. You can fill them with all your favorite ingredients to create your own version.

Ingredients

For the dough:
5 oz flour
5 oz wholemeal flour
2 oz olive oil
5 fl oz water
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp of salt
For the filling:
2 eggplants
2 zucchinis
3.5 oz tofu
3.5 oz cherry tomatoes
3.5 oz sun-dried tomatoes
A few leaves of fresh basil
2 oz fresh spinach
Star olive oil
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
For the tofu cream:
7 oz tofu
37 fl oz olive oil
2 tbsp of lemon juice
2 tbsp of mustard
1 tsp of salt
fresh chives

Instructions

1.
Mix the baking powder with the flour and salt. Add the olive oil and rub in to create a breadcrumb-like mixture. Now add the water and knead to make a smooth dough. Cover with a damp cloth or clingfilm and leave for half an hour.
2.
Make small dough balls and roll out using a rolling pin coated in flour until they are thin enough. It’s not easy to make perfectly round piadinas, but you can use a plate or mold to help. Pile them up as you go, sprinkling a layer of flour between them to stop them from sticking together.
3.
Use a suitably sized frying pan (if it’s nonstick, you won’t need to add any olive oil) to cook them over a medium heat until they’re golden brown on both sides. Remove and cover with a cloth so they don’t dry out. Alternatively, you can bake them in an oven at 395 ºF: preheat a baking tray, coat the piadinas with a little olive oil and bake for 3 or 4 minutes on each side.
4.
Next, make the tofu cream by blending together all the ingredients except the chives, which you need to chop up finely and then add to the cream. Set aside.
5.
To make the filling, cut the eggplant into strips, add salt and leave in a colander for at least half an hour to let them release some of their bitterness. Then wash them in cold water and dry with a clean tea towel.
6.
Cook in a frying pan or on a hotplate over a low heat with a dash of olive oil. Slice the zucchini and fry them on both sides in a frying pan or on a hotplate over a low heat with a dash of olive oil.
7.
Cut up the cherry tomatoes and chop up the sun-dried tomatoes. Spread the tofu cream onto the warm piadinas and fill them with the vegetables, cherry tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh spinach and basil leaves.