Eggplant dishes for the freezer
July 26, 2024 7:21 AM Subscribe
We have an abundance of eggplants coming out of the garden right now, both Italian and Asian varieties. We usually preserve these for the winter by grilling them in slices or grilling them whole and peeling, then freezing. I would like to additionally freeze a few eggplant-heavy main dishes that can expedite dinner this winter. Can you recommend some things that freeze well and are amenable to batch-cooking?
We eat everything, and generally have an abundance of ground beef from our meat CSA. Kidpangolin prefers no chiles, so I need to be able to remove those from a recipe (adultpangolins will add hot sauce or chile oil later.)
We eat everything, and generally have an abundance of ground beef from our meat CSA. Kidpangolin prefers no chiles, so I need to be able to remove those from a recipe (adultpangolins will add hot sauce or chile oil later.)
This tomato-and-eggplant sauce is hideously ugly but delicious and freezes well; I'd make a giant batch, puree it, and freeze the puree in meal or serving size containers, and make pasta fresh for serving.
posted by pollytropos at 7:51 AM on July 26, 2024
posted by pollytropos at 7:51 AM on July 26, 2024
I buy heat and eat packets of baingan bharta, so I imagine that freezes well. One example.
posted by fiercekitten at 8:19 AM on July 26, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by fiercekitten at 8:19 AM on July 26, 2024 [2 favorites]
I'm in the same eggplant boat! Tons of crop, same varieties. I've found they're virtually identical in terms of taste and texture, do you think so? I substitute one for the other in any recipe I use and so far haven't found any differences.
I just made this eggplant curry last night and it was SO good. I have made it in the past and it freezes really well. This is the first time I used all of the spices in the ingredients list, up to now I've just used jarred green curry from the market and it was just as good, imo. Also once in a blue moon I add shrimp or shredded chicken.
Eggplant bread! There are lots of recipes. I use this one and sub half of the zucchini for eggplant, don't see why it couldn't be ALL eggplant and no zucchini but alas, my husband is a farmer in disguise and grows just as much zucchini as eggplant and I am tasked with finding ways to not let it all go to waste ;) Definitely include the applesauce, it's what sets this one apart. Freezes like a dream. Sometimes add chocolate chips!
Also...eggplant lasagne or eggplant parm! Both freeze well.
One more: Meghan Markle's Filthy Sexy Zucchini Sauce, but make it with eggplant, because it is actually even better.
Oh yeah and caponata! Jar it and freeze it, defrost it and make pasta or pizza with it or use it as a dip with pita. Really good!
posted by the webmistress at 8:29 AM on July 26, 2024 [2 favorites]
I just made this eggplant curry last night and it was SO good. I have made it in the past and it freezes really well. This is the first time I used all of the spices in the ingredients list, up to now I've just used jarred green curry from the market and it was just as good, imo. Also once in a blue moon I add shrimp or shredded chicken.
Eggplant bread! There are lots of recipes. I use this one and sub half of the zucchini for eggplant, don't see why it couldn't be ALL eggplant and no zucchini but alas, my husband is a farmer in disguise and grows just as much zucchini as eggplant and I am tasked with finding ways to not let it all go to waste ;) Definitely include the applesauce, it's what sets this one apart. Freezes like a dream. Sometimes add chocolate chips!
Also...eggplant lasagne or eggplant parm! Both freeze well.
One more: Meghan Markle's Filthy Sexy Zucchini Sauce, but make it with eggplant, because it is actually even better.
Oh yeah and caponata! Jar it and freeze it, defrost it and make pasta or pizza with it or use it as a dip with pita. Really good!
posted by the webmistress at 8:29 AM on July 26, 2024 [2 favorites]
The eggplant dumplings here can be baked instead of fried and then frozen off to be simmered in a tomato sauce of your choice later. They are a bit of a production but REALLY good, and make a very quick and easy, luxurious dinner on the pulling-out-of-the-freezer end of the process. Eggplant parmesan in meatball form is exactly what they are and that is a wonderful thing. My whole family prefers them to eggplant parmesan in the traditional form.
A couple of streamlining tips:
- please do not feel compelled to custom-toast your own breadcrumbs if you don't want to. Use a slightly smaller amount of already-dry panko or whatever instead
- maybe golfballs are a lot bigger than i think they are but I make, uh, meatball-sized balls and get thirty-plus of them, not sixteen
- I chop the eggplant in the food processor and it turns out just swell
- as I say, bake those suckers. 350 for half an hour is fine
- and on the other end, warm them up in whatever tomato sauce you like best.
posted by redfoxtail at 8:04 PM on July 26, 2024 [1 favorite]
A couple of streamlining tips:
- please do not feel compelled to custom-toast your own breadcrumbs if you don't want to. Use a slightly smaller amount of already-dry panko or whatever instead
- maybe golfballs are a lot bigger than i think they are but I make, uh, meatball-sized balls and get thirty-plus of them, not sixteen
- I chop the eggplant in the food processor and it turns out just swell
- as I say, bake those suckers. 350 for half an hour is fine
- and on the other end, warm them up in whatever tomato sauce you like best.
posted by redfoxtail at 8:04 PM on July 26, 2024 [1 favorite]
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by missmobtown at 7:50 AM on July 26, 2024