What to eat with saffron rice???

i got some japanese eggplants from the japanese grocery shop in Japan town, naturally! i prefer japanese eggplants, the color of the skin is a beautiful deep inky purple and the taste is much more delicate with a sweeter aftertaste than regular eggplants. i wanted to roast some eggplant and cook some sausages to go with the saffron rice. so off to Wholefood i went. i got some mild italian sausages, red bell pepper and chives.
wash and dry chives, eggplants and bell pepper. i dried them with paper towel to prevent splatter later. cut chives in 1/2" length. in a hot pan on stovetop, add some olive oil, add chives to the hot oil and take off heat, transfer the chives with oil to a bowl immediately to stop the cooking, let it cool.
stab eggplants all over with a fork to let the steam out (during the cooking process later). preheat oven at broil 500 degree F. in a roasting pan, add olive oil, add eggplants and bell pepper, roll them in the oil to get even covering. cover with foil, poke a few holes in the foil to let the steam out. cook under broiler for about 30 to 40 minutes or until the epplants and bell pepper are cooked thoroughly. once done, immediately put the bell pepper in a paper bag and keep the bag tightly closed, let the bell pepper cool down inside the bag for 15 -30 minutes. the skin on the pepper will blister from the steam and come off real easy. you can roast the pepper over open flame (which will be faster and has better smoked flavor) if you have gas stovetop. while waiting for the pepper to cool down, cut the eggplants to whatever size you prefer, sprinkle some salt and pepper, add the chives and toss. peel bell pepper, remove seeds and dice.
add olive oil to roasting pan, add the italian sausages, drizzle some honey, roll the sausages around to get even oil and honey covering. cover pan with foil, poke a few holes in foil to let steam out, cook under broiler for about 40 minutes, flip sausages half way to get even cooking. when the sausages are almost done, remove the foil and brown the sausages directly under broiler for about 3-4 minutes on each side. the honey will help speed up the browning. take the roasting pan out of the oven, let the sausages rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting. slice the sausages and toss with diced roasted bell pepper.
for lunch, i packed the sausages with roasted eggplant on a bed of saffron rice... and bon appetit!