Katie Herring is sales and marketing manager at Cultivate

I'VE been trying to maintain a mostly vegetarian diet for a few years now.

At the beginning I found summer barbecue fair pretty uninspiring – there's only so many bean burgers you can stomach.

That was until I tried Smoke and Thyme’s veggie BBQ dish of aubergine steaks.

On the barbecue the aubergine flesh softened to a melt-in-the-mouth, creamy texture and the natural smokiness was enhanced by being cooked over hot coals.

I'd been kind-of indifferent to aubergine before this, but I was instantly converted and now that the local aubergine is coming into season I can’t wait to re-create the dish.

Luckily the recipe is incredibly simple: just slice, drizzle in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and chuck on the grill.

All we need now is some more barbecue weather.

When aubergine was first introduced to Europe it garnered the nickname 'mad-apple' because it comes from the family of poisonous plants known as the nightshade family.

Luckily it was quickly recognised as a delicious edible berry and it became a staple crop of the Mediterranean featuring in dishes such as moussaka (from Greece) and ratatouille (southern France).

In the past it was common to salt aubergines to remove bitterness and moisture but modern cultivars are rarely too bitter and so there's no longer any need to do this.

The flesh of aubergine lends itself fantastically to dips like baba ganoush. Simply roast the aubergine whole (prick first to avoid explosion) and once done scoop out the flesh and combine with crushed garlic, lemon juice, tahini, olive oil and pepper.

Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle the parsley over the top. Not only is this super tasty it's vegan-friendly, too.

Although you might associate aubergines with warmer climes, they can be grown pretty successfully under glass in this country, which is exactly what Cultivate supplier North Aston organics have been doing.

Their first crop came onto our shelves last week and I don't think I’ve ever seen them so large and plump. Their season will run from now until about September so plenty of time to go mad for this summer crop.