Grilled Eggplant with Buttermilk Sauce, Cherries & Pine Nuts Inspired by Ottolenghi

UPDATE: my computer was repaired enough for me to edit photos, so I've updated this post with real photos. Alas, the laptop is back at Best Buy being repaired ;(

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty awesome: great time hanging out with my friend Cecilia on Saturday. We had brunch, went to an estate sale, walked around and had sushi. Love spending time with friends!

Then Sunday I had plans to cook a few things, edit a zillion photos and take a nap. Most of these things happened other than editing a zillion photos because my laptop started shutting down every 2 minutes. It's currently being looked at and who knows what the Geek Squad will find....I'm slightly nervous.

Needless to say, I don't have any edited photos to post, so I'm posting one from instagram. The photo above is of an eggplant recipe I made inspired by the one from Ottolenghi. The only part of the recipe I followed is the buttermilk sauce, and even that I changed ;) That's how I roll!

Thanks to Sonia for the suggestion to make the original recipe!

Grilled Eggplant with Buttermilk Sauce, Cherries & Pine Nuts

Ingredients
1 eggplant, sliced into 1/4" rounds
salt & pepper
olive oil
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 garlic clove, microplane'd
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 cup cherries, pitted, chopped
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Directions
1. Preheat your Panini maker and brush it with olive oil. Season each side of eggplant rounds with salt and pepper and grill in the Panini maker for 10 minutes. {If you don't have a Panini maker, you can roast your eggplant at ~ 400F oven for 5-8 minutes on each side or until it's cooked through or sauté the rounds in a bit of olive oil in a skillet on top of the stove.}
2. To make the buttermilk sauce, whisk together Greek yogurt, buttermilk, red pepper flakes and season with salt.
3. Serve the grilled eggplant on a platter topped with the sauce, cherries, pine nuts and cilantro.

You guys!!!!! This was DIVINE! I haven't tried the original recipe from Ottolenghi, but I seriously think my recipe may be better, and it's for sure way easier to make. Plus, cherries are now in season, so why not use them instead of the pomegranate?

I hope you had a lovely weekend!