Should you peel eggplant when roasting?

While the skin of a small young eggplant is edible, the skin becomes bitter on larger or older eggplants and should be peeled . When in doubt, the answer to, "Do you peel eggplant before cooking?" is yes, peel it.

How do you make eggplant not soggy?

A useful tip to prevent sogginess and greasiness is to salt sliced or diced eggplant and let it sit for an hour .

How do you make eggplant more digestible?

One way to improve the digestibility of eggplants is by removing the skin . This will also help to reduce the amount of solanine in the vegetable. Another way to prepare eggplants for better digestion is to slice them thinly and soak them in salt water for around 30 minutes.

When should you not eat eggplant?

It's likely just been exposed to air and is experiencing enzymatic browning. An eggplant with brown spots is not safe to eat if it contains bugs or mold or exhibits other signs of spoilage . It should be thrown out.

What is the secret to cooking eggplant?

"When you lay them on the tray to roast, make sure they're in a single layer and give them enough room to roast properly . Eggplant is about 80 to 90 percent water, so when you put them in the oven they need space to evaporate all that water and caramelize properly," says Covarrubias.

How do you roast eggplant so it's not bitter?

Cut off the stem and nearby areas before cooking . The stem and area near the stem tend to be where bitter compounds collect. Slice or chop the eggplant and sprinkle the pieces with salt. Allow them to sit for about 30 minutes, then pat dry before cooking.

Why is my roasted eggplant bitter?

While most eggplants these days are bred to be less bitter, every once in a while you may still get one that is. The reason for this is likely because it's old. Young, fresh eggplants that you purchase at the farmers market are rarely bitter because they're newly picked.

Do you salt eggplant before roasting?

Salting the eggplant before cooking draws out excess moisture so the eggplant has a stronger flavor and a softer, more tender texture. Less water = more flavor. Does eggplant need to be salted? Eggplant does not necessarily need to be salted, but some recipes benefit from the process .

How to roast eggplant Jamie Oliver?

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush both sides of eggplant slices with oil, and place in a single layer on two or more baking sheets. Bake until undersides are golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes, then turn and bake until other sides are lightly browned.

Why is my baked eggplant tough?

Not cooking it in enough fat. You need to be a little more generous in order for there to be enough oil on the outside of the eggplant to cook properly.

Why does my tongue hurt after eating eggplant?

The symptoms of an eggplant allergy usually resemble those of other food allergies. Symptoms include: hives. itchy or tingly lips, tongue, or throat.

Why do I feel gassy after eating eggplant?

Nightshade intolerance may produce symptoms such as bloating, gas, heartburn, nausea, and diarrhea after eating foods that are members of the nightshade family, such as eggplant, potato, tomato, and pepper.

Is it better to cook eggplant with skin on or off?

The skin is entirely edible, though with larger eggplants it can be a little tough. If your eggplant is young, tender, and on the small side, the nutrient-rich skin can probably be left on for skillet frying or braising. Otherwise, peel the skin and then slice or cube the flesh .

How to prepare eggplant before baking?

However, if you can't get your head around cooking eggplant without salting it, here's how: sprinkle the cubed eggplant with 1 tsp salt, toss, leave in colander for 30 minutes. Rinse then thoroughly pat dry, toss with oil and pepper (NO SALT), roast per recipe .

Roasted Eggplant With Tahini, Pine Nuts, and Lentils Recipe (2024)

Why It Works

Puréeing the garlic in lemon juice tames its flavor, creating a tahini that's flavorful but not pungent.
Cooking the eggplant at high heat evaporates its moisture quickly.

This dish of eggplant roasted until caramelized and tender, served over stewed lentils with an extraordinarily light and creamy tahini sauce and crunchy pine nuts, was dinner and lunch for more meals than I care to count a couple of weeks back. Not that I'm complaining: It's extremely good.

I gotta admit, it was a little disappointing to see my bookget eliminated from Food52's annual Piglet tournament of cookbooksin the quarterfinal round, but it was a loss made much sweeter by the fact that I was introduced to another book I would have never seen if it weren't for the competition. As soon as I readPhyllis Grant's breathless description of the tahini sauce recipein Michael Solomonov'sZahav, I ordered the book without a second thought.

Oh, man, was it worth it.

I'd been experimenting with the treatment of chickpeas in hummus recipes for a while, but I'd largely been ignoring what, for Israeli versions of hummus, is almost as important: the tahini.

Roasted Eggplant With Tahini, Pine Nuts, and Lentils Recipe (1)

Getting Garlicky: the Tahini Sauce

Solomonov's version begins by puréeing whole, unpeeled garlic cloves with lemon juice in a blender. You'd expect this to create an intensely pungent garlic flavor, yet, because the garlic is puréed in an acidic liquid, it forms very little of the nose-tickling garlicky compound known asallicinand instead ends up mild and fragrant. (More details on this process in the hummus examination.)

The garlic and lemon mixture gets pushed through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl. You whisk in some cumin and tahini, which immediately seizes up into a clumpy, cement-like paste. Don't worry: As you slowly whisk in cold water, the mixture transforms into a gloriously light and creamy sauce with the texture of yogurt and a savory nuttiness.

It's very rare that I'm completely satisfied with a technique the first time I try it, but after some serious tinkering with this one, I couldn't find any way to improve upon Solomonov's original. With the exception of a few minor changes in ratios, it's essentially step for step how he does it. It works wonders as an ingredient in dips, or, as I'm using it here, as a sauce for roasted eggplant.

Eggplant is an almost cliché ingredient in vegetarian and vegan dishes (think: grilled eggplant in place of burgers), but there's a good reason: It's incredibly tasty when cooked right.

Roasted Eggplant With Tahini, Pine Nuts, and Lentils Recipe (2)

Roasting the Eggplant

I like to treat my eggplant to some pretty intense heat, whether it's whole on the grill, placed directly over the gas flame of a burner until charred, or roasted. High heat rapidly evaporates its interior moisture, allowing the eggplant to compress and increase in density while also adding nice smokiness.

Roasting eggplants whole will yield meltingly tender flesh inside, but here I wanted something a little meatier. So I split them in half first and scored them to expose their flesh to more of the caramelizing heat of the oven.

Roasted Eggplant With Tahini, Pine Nuts, and Lentils Recipe (3)

Eggplant is quite porous and will absorb a good amount of oil, so I brush it on pretty generously—at least a tablespoon per cut half—allowing each brushstroke of oil to soak into the flesh before brushing it on again. Oil not only adds rich texture and flavor (especially if it's a good-quality extra-virgin olive oil) but also ensures more even browning and heat distribution.

I roast the eggplants in a hot oven with a few sprigs of rosemary for extra fragrance. (If you prefer thyme, oregano, parsley, or any other herb, really, there's nothing that should stop you.) When the eggplant is tender and caramelized, it's ready to serve. You could scoop out the flesh andwhip it into a baba ganoush, but in this case, I like the fork-and-knife heartiness of serving it deconstructed, with the tahini sauce spooned over it.

A Simple Lentil Stew

To make it a complete meal, I pair it up with some lentils that are simply cooked with onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and bay leaves.

Roasted Eggplant With Tahini, Pine Nuts, and Lentils Recipe (4)

Rosemary, parsley, and toasted pine nuts add freshness and texture. Like I said, I was a little bit bummed when I saw my book get bumped out, but it's really hard to get hung up in gray clouds when the silver linings are so darn delicious.

March 2016

Recipe Details