If you’ve ever been drawn to those lovely burnished purple vegetables in the market, then you probably wondered how to prepare easy eggplant dishes.
Easy eggplant dishes abound, but first, you need the right vegetable. There are a few varieties of eggplants, with the egg shaped dark purple ones being most common. Look for smaller firm fruits that are heavy for their size to ensure the best quality. Avoid any that have wrinkled skin, since these will usually be bitter. The bigger the eggplant, the more tough seeds it will contain, so be careful of this, as well. A good size to aim for is the same length as your hand.
Once you have a good quality vegetable, you’re ready to start preparing easy eggplant dishes. It’s not as difficult as you might think. You may notice that most recipes call for salting the eggplant or sitting in salt water. This helps draw out the bitter juices and will also firm up the flesh so it is easier to cook with.
There are a few things that go very well with any eggplant dish. Garlic, tomatoes and olive oil all compliment this vegetable extremely well. In fact, a very quick and easy eggplant recipe is to just chop the eggplant, a few tomatoes and some garlic and cook them all up in some olive oil. Serve on bread or over rice and you have yourself a lovely meal.
Another popular way to cook this plant is to slice into “steaks” and brush with herbs and oil, then grill them. If you don’t have a grill, you can just use a hot frying pan to sear in the flavors.
Not sure how to serve the eggplant once it’s cooked? Well, if you have a sauce-like dish, you can serve it over pasta or rice. Many recipes do well on toast, as well. Grilled “steaks” can be turned into a simple, yet delicious sandwich or chopped or blended to create a salad or soup that’s extra good for you.
Don’t be afraid to try easy eggplant dishes. Even if they seem simple, these dishes can be delicious!
Jeano - 15 years ago
A recipe I came across many years ago for aubergines :
1 aubergine baked whole until soft (could be done in microwave?)
slit the skin, scoop out flesh
put through a mincer with 2 tomatoes, a med onion, 2 hard boiled eggs
1 tblspoon olive oil, 1 tblspoon white vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
This is ideal for serving as canapes or with toast for a starter to a meal
Another way our family love is the French vegetable stew Ratatouille
2 aubergines chopped skin incl
4-6 courgettes sliced
2 onions sliced
2 capsicums whatever colour prefered
sliced celery optional
1 kg tomatoes (or 2x450grm tins when tomatoes are expensive to buy)
2-4 garlic cloves crushed
approx 2 tbl olive oil
sea salt & black pepper to taste
Saute vegetables in oil starting with the firmer ones and gradually adding all to saucepan
You will find the vegetables will make their own juices
Depending on amount used cook for approx 30 mins.
As you can imagine this dish can be made as large or small as you wish!
This is delicious hot or cold and is excellent to freeze for when vegetables become hard to get & expensive and I quite often make enough to keep my daughter’s freezer supplied ! The benefit of this is the lack of calories ! !