TOP 5 recipes for popular eggplant dishes. How to make moussaka, caponata, lasagne, ratatouille and ajapsandali. Life hacks and cooking secrets. Video recipes.
Eggplant is a low-calorie vegetable, which contains only 24 kcal per 100 g. The fruit is very healthy, because contains fiber, which improves digestion. Due to the potassium content, the fruits have a beneficial effect on the work of the heart and normalize water-salt metabolism. It is useful to include them in the menu for the prevention of atherosclerosis, they are used for diabetes and many other diseases. In addition, eggplants have an original taste and can be combined with many products. This allows you to experiment with fruits and cook a wide variety of dishes with them. However, not everyone knows how to cook these blue-purple fruits deliciously. Although each nation has its own original eggplant dishes. Therefore, it is important to arm yourself with good cooking recipes. This selection presents popular national eggplant dishes and useful life hacks for cooking this vegetable.
Eggplant dishes - life hacks and useful tips
- Buy good quality eggplants. Take fruits of medium size, with a fresh stalk and tight-fitting sepals. The fruit should be firm, shiny and flawless.
- Do not peel the eggplants before cooking, otherwise they will fall apart and turn into a puree-like mass. The only exception is vegetable caviar.
- The most healthy eggplants are those cooked over an open fire, grilled, or in the oven. If you are frying them, use a non-stick skillet. A minimum amount of oil can be used in it, because eggplants actively absorb it, like a sponge.
- Eggplant often tastes bitter, so this specific bitterness should be removed. To do this, sprinkle the sliced fruits with salt for half an hour before cooking, and then rinse with running water. At the same time, keep in mind that usually ripe fruits are bitter. Therefore, in order not to carry out such manipulations, buy young vegetables that do not contain vegetables.
- When frying the fruits, turn on a high heat, then the pulp will not turn black.
See also how to cook eggplant and bell pepper shashlik.
Moussaka
Traditional delicious and very satisfying dish of the Balkans and the Middle East - moussaka. It is especially popular in Bulgaria. It is prepared from eggplant and minced meat.
- Calorie content per 100 g - 405 kcal.
- Servings - 6
- Cooking time - 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- Eggplant - 800 g
- Flour - 30 g
- Tomatoes - 300 g
- Ground nutmeg - pinch
- Hard cheese - 50 g (for filling), 200 g (for sauce)
- Lamb - 800 g
- Dry white wine - 180 g
- Eggs - 2 pcs.
- Onions - 1 pc.
- Salt to taste
- Olive oil - for frying
- Butter - 40 g
- Milk - 500 ml
- Ground black pepper - a pinch
Cooking moussaka:
- Cut the eggplants into thin oblong slices and fry in olive oil on both sides until golden brown. Then place on a paper towel to remove excess grease.
- For the filling, peel the onions, cut into half rings and fry until transparent.
- Pour boiling water over the tomatoes, place them in ice water and peel them off. Grind the tomato pulp into small cubes.
- Wash the lamb, twist through a meat grinder and fry until soft.
- Combine minced meat with fried onions and pour in wine. Continue cooking until the liquid evaporates.
- Add tomatoes to the meat, salt, pepper and simmer for a few minutes.
- For the sauce in a skillet, melt the butter and brown the flour.
- Pour hot (not boiled!) Milk into a pan with flour in a thin stream and stir constantly with a whisk to make the sauce without lumps.
- Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- Boil the sauce and add grated cheese. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the cheese is melted. Then remove the sauce from the heat.
- In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and slowly pour the sauce into them. Mix the mixture thoroughly.
- Collect the moussaka. To do this, put a layer of eggplant in a baking dish, on them a layer of minced meat and again a layer of eggplant. Pour milk sauce over everything and sprinkle with grated cheese.
- Place the moussaka in a preheated oven to 180 ° C for 30-40 minutes.
Caponata
Caponata is a Sicilian stew made with eggplant and complementary vegetables. It is consumed both hot and chilled. Serve on its own or as a side dish and snack.
Ingredients:
- Eggplant - 700 g
- Onions - 150 g
- Pitted olives - 150 g
- Capers - 90 g
- Sugar - 50 g
- Wine white vinegar - 100 ml
- Tomato paste - 0.5 l
- Olive oil - for frying
- Basil - bunch
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
Preparing the caponata:
- Peel the eggplants, cut into pieces and fry in olive oil in a pan.
- Peel the onions and chop a quarter into rings. Then, in a separate skillet, caramelize with sugar without butter until golden brown and add capers, which can be replaced with pickles.
- Then add olives and wine vinegar. Pour in some olive oil and simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Add fried eggplant with tomato paste to the food in the pan.
- Simmer for 7-10 minutes and add chopped basil a few minutes until tender.
- Season the caponata with salt and pepper, add chopped basil and serve the Sicilian dish hot or cold.
Eggplant lasagna
Eggplant lasagna is a vegetable variation of the traditional national Italian dish, where sheets of pasta from dough replace plates of eggplant, which makes the dish more dietary and less nutritious.
Ingredients:
- Eggplant - 600 g
- Ground beef - 500 g
- Tomato paste - 500 g
- Mozzarella - 10 0g
- Parmesan - 100 g
- Breadcrumbs - 100 g
- Eggs - 2 pcs.
- Water - 2 tablespoons
- Olive oil - 3 tablespoons
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper - a pinch
Making eggplant lasagna:
- Cut the eggplants into thin long plates about 0.5 cm thick.
- Beat eggs with water.
- Stir in grated Parmesan with breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.
- Dip the eggplants in beaten eggs, then in breadcrumbs with cheese and greased with olive oil on a baking tray.
- Heat the oven to 180 degrees and bake the eggplants for 20 minutes until golden brown.
- Heat olive oil in a skillet and sauté the ground beef. After 10 minutes, season it with salt and pepper, add tomato paste, boil and remove from heat.
- Place some of the baked eggplant in a baking dish.
- Top them with tomato and meat sauce and sprinkle with grated mozzarella.
- Put back the eggplant, some meat filling and sprinkle with mozzarella. Depending on the height of the mold, there may be 2-3 such layers.
- Heat the oven to 200 degrees and send the eggplant lasagna to bake for 10-15 minutes to melt the cheese.
Ratatouille
Provencal, bright and beautiful dish - ratatouille. In fact, this is a simple vegetable dish of French cuisine, but it turns out to be very aromatic and tasty. It will be appreciated not only by fans of vegetables, but also by lovers of meat.
Ingredients:
- Eggplant - 300 g
- Zucchini - 300 g
- Tomatoes - 400 g (for filling), 200 g (for sauce)
- Bulgarian pepper - 200 g
- Onions - 100 g
- Carrots - 200 g
- Olive oil - 80 g (for filling), 60 g (for sauce)
- Salt to taste
- Garlic - 3 cloves
- Ground black pepper - to taste
- Italian Herb Blend - To Taste
- Basil - a few twigs
Cooking ratatouille:
- For the sauce, chop the tomatoes, bell peppers and onions very finely.
- Peel and grate the carrots, peel and finely chop the garlic.
- Heat olive oil in a skillet and sauté onion until golden brown.
- Then add the carrots with bell peppers and fry until half cooked.
- Add the tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes until the vegetables are done.
- Season with salt, pepper to taste, Italian herbs and garlic. Stir, fry for half a minute and remove from heat.
- You can leave the finished vegetables in this form, or you can grind them with a blender until they are puree.
- For the filling, cut the eggplants, zucchini and tomatoes into thin 5 mm slices.
- Place half of the sauce in a baking dish.
- Top with alternating slices of eggplants, tomatoes and zucchini in a circle or in rows.
- Top with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with chopped basil.
- Cover the form with foil and send to the preheated oven to 180 degrees for 40-45 minutes.
Ajapsandali
Ajapsandali is a well-known dish, or rather a cold appetizer, of Georgian cuisine. Although it can be served hot. Traditionally, the food is served with fresh lavash and herbs.
Ingredients:
- Eggplant - 5 pcs.
- Carrots - 2 pcs.
- Bulgarian pepper - 4 pcs.
- Hot green pepper - 1 pc.
- Onions - 2 pcs.
- Garlic - 5 cloves
- Cilantro - bunch
- Tomatoes - 5 pcs.
- Parsley - a bunch
- Basil - bunch
- Ground coriander - 0.5 tsp
- Hops-suneli - 0.5 tsp
- Saffron - on the tip of a knife
- Vegetable oil - for frying
- Salt - 1 tsp or to taste
- Ground black pepper - a pinch
Cooking ajapsandali:
- Cut the eggplants into 1 cm thick circles and fry over medium heat in a skillet in hot vegetable oil, on both sides until golden brown and fully cooked.
- Place the eggplants on a paper towel to remove excess oil and transfer to a thick-bottomed saucepan.
- Wash the bell peppers, remove the seeds and cut into strips. Fry it in vegetable oil over medium heat for 7-10 minutes until soft and transfer to a saucepan with eggplant.
- Peel and cut the onions into half rings. Peel the carrots and cut into strips. In a skillet over low heat in a large amount of vegetable oil, simmer the onions and carrots for 20-30 minutes until soft. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a saucepan with vegetables.
- Finely chop the parsley and basil and fry in a preheated pan in a little oil for 3-5 minutes. Send them to the vegetable pot.
- Grate the tomatoes on a coarse grater and pour the mass into a saucepan with vegetables.
- Season everything with coriander, hops-suneli, saffron, finely chopped hot pepper.
- Finely chop the cilantro and garlic, add a pinch of coarse salt and heat to make a homogeneous gruel. Transfer the dressing to the vegetables and stir.
- Simmer vegetables over low heat for 15 minutes. Then remove the ajapsandali from the heat and let it brew under the lid.
Video recipes:
Moussaka with eggplant.
Sicilian caponata.
Eggplant lasagna.
Ratatouille.
Ajapsandali. Caucasian kitchen.
