But there are strategies you can use now to ensure perfect eggplant with minimal fuss. Eggplant can be a low-maintenance prep kind of veggie. You might just need to cut to the desired shape round slices, long strips, or a dice —or even just pierce the skin with a fork and roast it. If your eggplant is larger and has a tougher skin or you're just not a fan of eating eggplant skin , you can peel eggplant with a vegetable peeler or paring knife.
It's traditional to salt eggplant before you cook it—a technique that started way back when to reduce the bitterness and help draw out moisture. But eggplants today especially if you pick smaller ones aren't as bitter, so it's only really necessary for frying and other cooking techniques where the moisture content really matters.
If you want to salt the eggplant before you cook it, slice into rounds or dice the eggplant as needed for your recipe, then lay the pieces out on a paper towel, salt generously, layer it with more paper towels and perhaps a heavy pan to weigh it down , and let it sit for 45 minutes. Eggplant acts like a sponge when it cooks, so it'll soak up a lot of cooking liquid. Follow the recipe's liquid measurements precisely to make sure you get the texture just right. Eggplant can give you the same texture as meat for your meatless Monday recipes and has a mild flavor that can easily take on any flavors you bring into the dish—whether you're planning a dish with Mediterranean flavors or a hearty Indian curry.
Go ahead and marinate eggplant in your favorite flavor combo to see what this veggie can do. Raw eggplant can be stored in the fridge for about a week. But you can actually freeze eggplant, as long as it's been roasted and pureed. You can use this for recipes like this miso eggplant dip. Fried or baked eggplant is delicious, but it's not the only way to cook eggplant.
One of the most popular baked eggplant recipes is eggplant parmesan, with its layers of mozzarella and marinara mixed in with the eggplant.
But eggplant can also be baked into a healthier take on French fries. Recipe to try : Eggplant Parmesan Rollatini. Bake until the eggplant is tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Eggplant's meaty texture makes it a natural for cooking on the grill, whether you're cooking it outdoors or on an indoor grill pan—and grilling gives eggplant a great smoky flavor. Tomatoes burst with juicy sweetness. Eggplant, bless its heart, skews a little more on the bland side.
It needs a lot of seasoning—salt, spices—to succeed. I noticed that a few reviews of our eggplant pasta mentioned theirs was bland. A bigger eggplant might need twice the amount of seasonings of a smaller one. A rookie mistake is not fully cooking the eggplant. A raw eggplant is crunchy and flavorless, like a raw potato. If you have to, hammer it a bit, knock it around, let it start to collapse.
This eggplant confit practically melts in your mouth. In one of my favorite BA eggplant recipes, halved eggplants turn to custard and you top them with crispy beef. Which brings me to our concluding point. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Your email address will not be published. Notify me via e-mail if anyone answers my comment. Cooked this last night, wonderful! Easy, delicious recipe—I served drizzled with a chermouli sauce, so good! Yes it should but you will need more of them as they are smaller.
Just be sure to cut to the correct thickness. Thanks again Nagi. Really fab!! Adore this eggplant recipe!! Perfect every time! Made this tonight. It came out a little burnt — I think 15 mins on first side would have been fine. Still pretty yummy though! I love eggplant and will be making this again. I made this and my husband and I loved the tasty recipe. Nice to have another way to eat eggplant.
Use nonstick aluminum foil.. This is a very nicely presented recipe — having had some of the problems highlighted here, I appreciate these fixes which work! I appreciate how your presentation is a little chatty, but mostly just contains advice related to the recipe, as well as other ways to use the main ingredient. Also, I know cooking sites always have ridiculously luscious close-up photos of their food, but even so, your fork-through-caramelized-eggplant is pretty spectacular. One thing — you may be able to get away with smaller cubes of eggplant with a slightly lower temperature F.
Thanks again! I mixed garlic, ginger, sambal olek, mirin and brown sugar, poured it over and roasted it. Voila — my own version caramelised chilli eggplant. Paired it with your cauliflower fried rice. I enjoy preparing eggplant as a side dish for many of my favorite meals! It adds a lot of flavor to the overall experience! It was delicious. I often have mushy eggplant. Not this time.
Just smushy eggplant that needs thrown into a food processor and rebranded as baba ganoush. I thought that sounded like bad advice, but tried it as described anyway. Total sludge, nothing like it should have been. Hi Rika, sorry you had trouble here — there definitely will be caramelisation, sounds like your oven may run slightly cool? Making an exception here: I thought your Roasted Eggplant Lentil Salad was fabulous…and it taught me a few things. Thank you!!!
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