I love the look of eggplant. I’d love to try growing some in the backyard, as I am constantly trying to diversify our garden. However…
Other than babaganouge, I’m not aware of any eggplant recipes I can eat. That is because I am allergic to tomatoes and all the recipes I find including eggplants also always seem to include tomatoes.
So… does anyone have any eggplant recipes that are either tomato free or can be easily made tomato free?
I used to just peel it, cut it in long strips, and deep-fry it. No breading, just toss them in the oil until they’re golden brown, then drain, salt, and eat.
All sorts of Asian dishes use eggplant without tomato. Thin slice it and use it in a stir-fry.
I don’t even peel it. I’ve found the easiest thing to do is wedge it lengthwise into about 8 pieces, drizzle sea salt and olive oil, and roast it at 400 for about 20 minutes. Simple, roasty goodness! I’ll roast other root veggies along side sometimes, dreamy with beets or squash cubed up and roasted together.
Sorry I don’t have a “dish” recipe. You could certainly bread it with Italian seasonings, pan fry eggplant parmesan style, and serve with an alfredo sauce rather than tomato.
My husband does something like this with eggplant and zucchinis - he slices them all thin and uses alfredo sauce to make them into a sort of tomato-free lasagne thingy that gets baked in the oven. (I’m not allergic to tomatoes, but they don’t like my stomach.)
I can get him to write up a recipe for you if you’d like. He cooks without ones usually - I don’t see how he does it.
That actually sounds pretty darn good - I’d appreciate a recipe of some sort (cooking temps and times for instance). I cook without recipes a lot, too, but that’s because I know how long to cook an ingredient and have some idea of which things go together. It’s not the way everyone is comfortable cooking, of course. Usually, when I’m new to something I’ll follow a recipe the first couple times then start improvising. Used to drive my mom nuts, she was very much a follow a recipe to the letter sort of cook.
Here’s one. Cut fairly thinish slices of eggplant and sandwich a filling of ricotta, one egg, a bit of low moisture grated mozz, a touch of nutmeg, a basil leaf, and “sew” together witha couple or a few toothpicks… roll in milk eggwash and seasoned flour mixed with a bit of cornmeal. Fry till brown and the eggplant is tender, the crust is crisp. Top with a pinenut and basil pesto.
Cut eggplant into slices about 3/4 in thick. Dip in egg and dredge in flour. Fry until golden brown
silenus speaks the truth. If you have access to Asian ingredients, they are a very good source for eggplant recipes without any tomatoes.
My favorite is a stewed eggplant. Make a dashi stock (cook bonito flakes in some water if you don’t have instant dashi), add sliced eggplants, soy sauce, mirin, sake, and a little sugar. Cook for 30-40 minutes on low heat. Top with bonito flakes before serving. Goes very well with rice and it can be a whole meal if you add some ground beef or pork first.
Or you can cut the eggplant in half, slather with some miso and bake.
If Asian ingredients are too hard to find though, there’s a recipe in the “Two Dudes One Pan” cookbook that has a simple pan roasted eggplant dish that doesn’t call for tomatoes. Basically cut the eggplants in half, pan-fry until browned on both sides. In another pan, add sliced shallots, garlic, capers, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, basil, parsley, and a little sugar. Then use butter to bind together the sauce. Pour over eggplants and you’re done.
Yes, that’s the traditional way, Chuck. How I’d do it.
But it’s not the Warlock, F-18 version, with lots of #Win, Charlie.
You’re sure you don’t have any allergy to eggplant? It’s closely related to tomato so be careful not to overdo it if you don’t normally eat much eggplant.
My favorite way to eat eggplant is turmeric eggplant, which I learned from an Indian friend. Slice eggplant in half lengthwise and then in 1/4 slices so you have a bunch of half circles. Sprinkle with salt, turmeric, and a little water and then toss to coat. Fry the slices in olive oil until soft.
Also this recipe for steamed eggplant in sesame-soy sauce is really yummy and the sauce can be used on practically any vegetable. I once ate a whole eggplant in one sitting due to this sauce.
This sounds exactly like the ground pork and eggplant stew I love at my favorite izakaya and I can never find a recipe for. Can you be more specific about the ingredient amounts for the broth?
Maybe not what you’re looking for, since you like eggplant and the purpose of this recipe is to conceal it, but this recipe a friend of mine came up with looks promising: sneaky eggplant jambalaya.
You can also just cut the eggplant into “steaks” and grill 'em. I’ve done that on a George Foreman grill with some olive oil brushed on the eggplant, and it was awesome.
Heh, I was actually trying to recreate the age nasu dish from FuRaiBo, an izakaya chain in the Los Angeles area. My recipe is not an exact match, but it’s close enough for me. Being the scatter brain that I am sometimes, I haven’t written down the exact ratios I use, but I sometimes don’t measure and just go by instincts anyway, so tweak to your taste.
Make the dashi broth first. If you’re using instant dashi, follow the instructions (usually 1 packet to 5 cups water if I’m remembering correctly). If you don’t have instant dashi, use approximately 5-6 tablespoons bonito flakes, cook in 4-5 cups water. Once the bonito flavor starts to come out, add diced eggplants (about a pound), 2 tablespoons sake, 2 tablespoons mirin, 1 teaspoon sugar, and 3/4 cup light soy sauce. Cook 30-40 minutes on low. Add more bonito flakes before serving. This will make a fairly light broth. For a heavier broth, just reduce the water.
If you’re adding the ground pork, I usually use 1/2 lb of ground pork. Hope this helps.
Whole baby aubergines… then, pork, scallops and XO (finely minced and cubed)- chinese plum wine, Oyster Sauce, soy, garlic and ginger… a tiny bit of corn flour and stock. serve with sticky rice.
A local pizzeria has a variety of pizza with chicken, Alfredo instead of tomato sauce, and eggplant (chicken and egg-plant, get it?)
Not bad, but not as good as their regular bacon, mushroom, and onion thick crust . . . .
{insert gurgling drool sound effect}