Courgette And Chickpea Pie Variations

Our answer

Nigella's Courgette And Chickpea Filo Pie (from HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS) uses store-bought filo pastry and has a Middle-Eastern inspired filling of spiced rice, courgettes, onions and chickpeas. Tweaking recipes is always encouraged and we suspect that some substitutions can be made, but you need to be mindful on how the different ingredients may affect the filling.

Globe aubergines (eggplants) are fatter, meatier aubergines. They could be used, diced, for the filling but they can absorb a lot of fat as they cook. We would suggest that they are diced and then sautéed or roasted in advance and added fully cooked to the soft onions. There is no need to cook the mixture after this at a high heat as there will be no excess liquid to evaporate. Pine nuts will be fine to add to the mixture, we would suggest stirring them into the rice with the chick peas. For the dried fruits you can add some but as dried fruits will absorb some liquid, we would suggest not using too many and maybe adding an extra tablespoon or two of stock to the rice to offset this.