Eggplant Deep Dive
Thoughts and tips, plus a recipe for Moroccan-Inspired Chickpea Soup
I’m devoting today’s newsletter to that “love it or hate it” vegetable (or is it a fruit?), eggplant! Many of you mentioned looking forward to eggplant back on our summer produce thread, which encouraged me to devote a whole newsletter to it. It’s one of the final stars in the summer produce show, and it lasts well into fall. Eggplant is so versatile, and is happy to stand in for meat whenever it can, making meatless meals more substantial and satisfying.
Eggplant can have a bitterness to it, which is what some people object to, but I find that to be less and less true. I’m guessing the seeds and the bitterness that can come with them must be getting bred out over time, because lately, when I cut into any variety of eggplant, I find them to be almost seedless.
Some people might think preparing eggplant is very time consuming and cumbersome, but I don’t. I almost never salt eggplant, because I never deep fry it. Since eggplant is like a sponge, it can soak up a lot of oil. Salting it reduces this tendency, and also takes some of the bitterness out, if it’s there. Old fashioned eggplant Parm, with its fried disks of eggplant that have been salted, peeled, and breaded in a 3-step procedure is indeed a bit of a job. When I make something like eggplant Parm, and I do, all the time, I simply roast the thick slices in the oven, brushing them sparingly with oil, and sometimes spraying them with oil too, just before turning them. I don’t peel them either, because I like the skin!
I have nothing against fried foods (and I do love to eat them in moderation), but I prefer to leave that work and mess to restaurants or friends who don’t mind doing it. It’s a bit too messy and involved for me at home. Luckily, there are a lot of other ways to cook eggplant!
I often use the grill — it does a great job at transforming eggplant into something creamy, soft, and craveable.
A few weeks ago I grilled some chunks of eggplant on skewers, and people were going back for seconds and asking how I made it. All I did was brush it with oil, season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder (yes, garlic powder!), and cook it on a nice hot grill until it was golden on the outside and creamy on the inside. No recipe needed.
Stewing is another good way to cook eggplant and requires little to no oil. The most famous stewed eggplant dish is ratatouille, of course. Unfortunately, ever since the film Ratatouille came out, people think that ratatouille is something closer to a Tian Provençal, which is essentially the same vegetables, shingled in a gratin dish and baked. Clare de Boer shared a recipe for classic ratatouille on her wonderful new Substack newsletter, The Best Bit, last week. If you’ve never made it and want to take advantage of all the end-of-season produce available in one dish, this is a great place to start.
Below are my top tips for shopping for and cooking with eggplant, as well as favorite recipes from the Susanality archives and a new recipe for you. I was working on this Moroccan-inspired soup just one day before the horrific earthquake there. If you want to help the victims of the earthquake, you can donate to Global Giving’s Morocco Earthquake Relief Fund here.
Tips for Cooking with Eggplant
Look for smaller eggplant, which will have fewer seeds.
Don’t salt it and rinse it, just season to taste.
Cut slices thicker than usual if grilling or roasting, to compensate for shrinkage.
Brush or spray with oil.
Don’t peel (unless you prefer it that way).
Grill it, roast it, sauté it, or stew it.
Poke eggplant with a fork before roasting whole to avoid explosions!
Roast it whole on the grill, oven, or directly on a gas burner.
Eggplant Dishes from the Archives
Smoky Eggplant Dip: Top your dip with any or all of these — quartered and halved cherry tomatoes, sliced olives, sumac, herbs, harissa sauce, a drizzle of olive oil.
Moroccan-Inspired Chickpea Soup
Serves 4
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of cayenne pepper, to taste
1 medium eggplant (about 12 ounces), cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 small carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch-thick rounds
3 cups vegetable stock
1 cup strained tomatoes or tomato purée
1 (14.5 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup cooked large-grain couscous
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Harissa sauce, for garnish
In a large saucepan, add olive oil and onion, and season with salt and pepper. Sauté over medium-low heat until translucent, 8 to 10 minutes. Add cumin, cinnamon, and cayenne, and sauté 1 minute longer.
Add eggplant, season with salt and pepper, and raise heat to medium-high. Cook eggplant, stirring frequently until wilted and translucent, 6 to 8 minutes. Add carrots, 3 cups stock, tomatoes, and chickpeas and simmer over low heat, partially covered, for 20 to 25 minutes, until flavors have blended and carrots are tender. Adjust seasonings, adding more salt, black pepper, and cayenne to taste.
Purée 2 to 3 ladlefuls of soup in a blender, and return to the pot. Thin if needed with more stock to reach the desired consistency.
Ladle into soup bowls and top each one with a few spoonfuls of couscous and some chopped parsley. Garnish with harissa, if desired. Serve immediately.
In Other News
Recently I chatted with Matt Rodbard for the This is TASTE podcast. We covered a lot of ground in the conversation, from the NYC food scene in the ‘80s to working with Martha and Meryl to the cookbook I dream of writing one day. I hope you’ll take a listen!
Editor: Molly Ramsey
Chinese eggplant, specifically Yu Xiang Jie Z is the very pinnacle of eggplant dishes
“vegetables, shingled in a gratin dish” --a verb as divine as eggplant! Respect.