Monochrome smoky mung beans that taste better than they look

When I saw today's MoFo prompt about black and white, I did a little happy dance: I have a recipe I really like but I've never posted here because it looks like the sort of thing that people (erroneously) think vegans eat all the time: it's kind of, well, grey.

No one looks at grey food and thinks they want to dive into a plateful, do they? Grey food just doesn't scream 'eat me' - it more sort of sobs 'see if you can get a teaspoon of this in your mouth without boking'.

Still, being of an optimistic cast of mind today, I thought I'd celebrate the greyness of this dish with a spot of black and white photography. Voila:

This is a side salad recipe more than anything - it takes baba ganoush and turns it from dip into something more substantial (and, yes, something more grey). But don't let grey put you off - appearances are deceptive and this is much tastier than it looks.

This is a six-food elimination diet-friendly recipe and, given the ingredients aren't overly expensive, I reckon this would be pretty student-friendly too.

Mung bean and smoked aubergine side salad
Makes one bowl of side salad

Ingredients
One aubergine
85g mung beans
1tbsp olive oil
2tbsps lemon juice
1tbsp tahini
One small clove of garlic, finely chopped

How you do it
Turn on your gas hob and put the aubergine on it, turning it every so often, and moving the aubergine up and down the flame every so often.
Keep going until the entire skin of the aubergine is blackened, the aubergine is all cooked all the way through - stick a skewer in it at the widest part and it should meet no resistance on the way through.
Leave the aubergine to cool down in a bowl while you make the rest of it.
Cook your mung beans according to the packet instructions - usually 20 minutes seems to do the trick but you might have you own way of cooking beans, in which case, do it your way and don't listen to my wittering.
Once they're cooked through, drain them, and add the olive oil and one tablespoon of lemon juice, and stir through.
Take off the blackened skin of the aubergine, and cut off its little cap. If there's any aubergine liquid coming off, pour it into the lentils for extra flavour.
Blend up the aubergine, the other 1tbsp of lemon juice, tahini, and garlic into a puree.
Stir the puree and lentils together and you have your tip! Fetch yourself some chips or pitta bread (wheat free if you're six-food elimination dieting) and get stuck in.