I recently had the good fortune to eat several vine ripened tomatoes the size of softballs grown by my uncle. My dad mentioned that my uncle also grew eggplants and had plenty ready to harvest, but didn’t have any good recipes for eggplant. I thought since I enjoyed the bounty of his tomato growing prowess, I should track down some good eggplant recipes to show my appreciation.
Photo by *n*o*o*r*
This is all well and good. Trading delicious homegrown produce for recipes is a pretty good deal. But the problem is that I have only had, at best, mixed success with cooking eggplant. I’ve made this grilled eggplant recipe before that came out pretty well, but I also once made an eggplant rollatini that was barely edible. The eggplant tasted like roasted rubber bands.
So…I was hoping you all could help me out? What’s your favorite thing to do with eggplants? Links to tried and true recipes would be greatly appreciated!
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow. Perfect timing
http://the6x8garden.blogspot.com/2009/08/what-i-made-for-dinner-last-night_13.html
I don’t really use a recipe, but I use a mixture of cheese & cooked eggplant as a filling for chili rellenos. The eggplant tames the heat of the chili a bit and decreases the amount of fat there would be if the filling were all cheese. I simply cube and sautee the eggplant in a bit of olive oil then mix with grated cheese. I stuff the chilies and prepare as with regular rellenos. Yum.
I like to cut mine into strips and grill em (on my Lodge Cast Iron Stovetop Grill Pan), then put a bit of goat cheese on em and roll em up. They make great appetizers!
Lucky you fern! I love eggplant. Was contemplating growing it this summer but we will see. I make stuffed eggplant, you half, hollow without putting a hole in each half, and chop the bits you cut out. Then pop the cut out bits in with a risotto or some chilli beef. Pop the mix back in the shells and bake in the oven until soft. Don’t forget the grated cheese in top. My housemate became addicted to this!
I love eggplant. We put it in everything from stir-fry to pasta. Just a couple nights ago my boyfriend made a local dish called tinaktak. Tinaktak is groundbeef and eggplant with other vegetables in a coconut milk sauce. Not so great for you, but soooo tasty.
I’m from Europe and Eggplant is known as Aubergine there. I had a hard time when I first moved here asking around for a Moussaka recipe – a Greek dish with Aubergine as the main ingredient. Puzzled as to what vegetable I was describing, my new American friends finally understood when I pointed to a friends sweater and said the vegetable was the same color….’oh, you mean Eggplant’ they all chorused!
Check the web for Moussaka – it’s a delicious dish with eggplant and ground lamb (or beef)- yum!
Being from the “keep it simple” school of cooking, I chuck cut an assortment of vegies. Whatever is around, such as tomatoes, onions, garlic, bell pepper, zucchini, and eggplant. Stir fry starting with vegies that take longest to cook. Can be used as a side dish or a topper for pasta, couscous, rice…I think you get the idea.
There’s always ratatouille! There are multiple recipes for this dish, many of which seem difficult and fussy to make. However, the French (at least my mother-in-law) treat this as kind of the fridge-cleaning recipe. Just fry up the eggplant, and then you pretty much throw in whatever veggies you have lying around. The standard inclusions are zucchini, tomatoes, onions, and carrots. Add your “herbes de provence,” and salt and pepper. Just throw everything into the frying pan with some olive oil, and serve it with pasta and a crusty baguette. Delicious! (You can also make this in the crock pot.)
Here is a good appetizer recipe:
You will need eggplant, red bell pepper, basil, goat cheese and olive oil.
Place whole red bell pepper on grill over medium high heat. Cook until black turning occasionally. When done, peel and discard the black stuff. Cut the bell pepper in half and seed, then cut into long thin strips.
Cut the eggplant into slices about 1/2 inch thick, coat with olive oil and grill. Spread goat cheese on slices. Place basil (you can use any type of basil, but sweet basil seems to work the best) on top of goat cheese and then top with bell pepper.
You now have a great summertime appetizer!
I slice it in quarters and grill it along with mushrooms, corn, asparagus, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, and zucchini which I’ll sometimes add grilled shrimp or chicken to and then put on top of a lettuce mix (anything but iceberg) that’s been tossed in a light raspberry vinagrette. The mix of warm grilled veggies with the cool romaine/spinach is delicious. I’ve added bacon or sunflower seeds to give it a crunch sometimes too.
When I grill the veggies, I usually just use a little ground pepper, kosher or sea salt, and a touch of lemon juice or olive oil in the frying pan.
Here are my favorite eggplant recipes.
http://www.vegrecipes4u.com/eggplant-recipes.html