When I was learning to cook in college (not what I went to college for!), one of the things I did was keep a recipe box just for vegetables. I made it a goal to find five recipes I liked for each vegetable. I never got to five for everything, but I developed a good pile of recipes and ate a few more vegetables than I would have otherwise. Now that I've discovered some new vegetables (kale) and I'm trying to cook more seasonally, I've decided to revive the practice. So starting now, five recipes for eggplant.
Eggplant is one of the things my parents usually plant in their vegetable garden. And this eggplant dip, similar to baba ghanouj, is something my mom made often.
Roasted Eggplant Dip
1 medium eggplant
4 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
salt
cayenne pepper
Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise. Separate the garlic cloves from the head of garlic, but don't remove the skin from the cloves. Place the eggplant and garlic in your roasting dish and drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil over them. Roast at 350 degrees until the eggplant and garlic are soft, stirring once or twice. The entire process will take 45 minutes to an hour depending on how big your eggplant is. The garlic may finish earlier. If so, remove the cloves and set aside.
When the eggplant is soft, remove from the oven. Scoop the eggplant flesh from the skin and squeeze the garlic from the skins. Combine the eggplant flesh, garlic, and remaining olive oil in a food processor and process until smooth. Salt to taste.
Place the eggplant in a bowl, drizzle with sesame oil and sprinkle with cayenne.
Other eggplant recipes
Spicy Eggplants
4 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
salt
cayenne pepper
Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise. Separate the garlic cloves from the head of garlic, but don't remove the skin from the cloves. Place the eggplant and garlic in your roasting dish and drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil over them. Roast at 350 degrees until the eggplant and garlic are soft, stirring once or twice. The entire process will take 45 minutes to an hour depending on how big your eggplant is. The garlic may finish earlier. If so, remove the cloves and set aside.
When the eggplant is soft, remove from the oven. Scoop the eggplant flesh from the skin and squeeze the garlic from the skins. Combine the eggplant flesh, garlic, and remaining olive oil in a food processor and process until smooth. Salt to taste.
Place the eggplant in a bowl, drizzle with sesame oil and sprinkle with cayenne.
Other eggplant recipes
Spicy Eggplants
2 comments:
Hi, I'm a friend of Erica, and I really enjoy your blog (or pretty much any food blog with great vegetable recipes). My favorite thing to do with eggplant is roast it until it's all squishy, then make it absorb as much extra virgin olive oil as it can, about 1/3 cup for a 1 pound eggplant. Add a little salt and lemon juice, and it's just delicious. I think my recipe calls for a pinch of sugar, too, in case the eggplant is bitter, but I usually forget to put it in. It sounds boring, but it tastes sinfully decadent.
Eggplant's ability to absorb massive amounts of olive oil is part of its charm, isn't it? Your recipe sounds a lot like my mom's. I'll have to try adding some lemon juice next time.
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