Melty eggplant recipes

July 25, 2024 12:22 PM

My family is revolting…against aubergine. Please share any eggplant recipe you have found delicious that meets the following ultra-niche parameters.

A dinner table discussion revealed that my family only likes eggplant when it is “melting,” that is, really soft and creamy with no bitterness. I know using Asian/Chinese eggplants is the easiest way to achieve this but unfortunately we will get a lot of Italian eggplant over the next while. Simply roasting them hasn’t been met with enthusiasm. So I’m looking for recipes where:

- the eggplant does not hold its shape
- it’s not bitter
- the recipe is vegetarian and preferably vegan

Bonus points for instant/crock pot recipes or ones where I can walk away for an hour.

I really prefer one you have tried over a Google search, but hey. Techniques also welcome.

Flavour profiles - we’re open!

posted by warriorqueen to Food & Drink (30 answers total)

Best answer: Slice an Italian eggplant quite thin. Salt a paper towel over a tray. Lay out slices. More salt and paper towel. Then some weight.
Leave for a while. Whatever you roast will melt apart.
Or, cut an Italian eggplant in half, length wise. Put cut side down on a baking sheet w some oil on it. Roast at 400 or 450 for 40 minutes. The top top top by the calyx should be easily puncturable by a bamboo skewer.
Make whatever you want! (This is a great base for babaganoush!)
posted by atomicstone at 12:26 PM on July 25 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I got this one off Instagram - @chefjjskitchen - and made it the other night. I thought it was great but my daughter said it was bitter, so, ymmv. Maybe salt the eggplant first for 30 minutes to draw out the bitterness? He called it the Black Salad and said it was Sudanese but I ate it warm, and it was delicious and I wouldn't think of it as salad. So go figure.
5-6 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
4 chilies - I used 2 jalapenos, chopped fine
2 large eggplants, chopped into cubes
1 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp yogurt
1 tbsp peanut butter
juice of 1 lemon, I used half
chopped parsley and crushed peanuts for garnish (I skipped the peanuts and mixed in the parsley)
Saute the eggplant in olive oil until it's quite soft. Push them to the side, add more olive oil, the garlic and chilies. Add the tomato puree and the yogurt to the garlic mixture. When that's mixed, add the peanut butter, then mix it all up with the eggplant. Squoosh the eggplant till the whole thing is more like a paste than chunks. Squeeze the lemon over it, sprinkle with parsley and eat with pita bread or a baguette or whatever you've got, really.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:03 PM on July 25 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I am not an eggplant fan but last year I quite enjoyed cooking them in a simple red sauce over pasta (a quick and easy staple at our house). I used one of several of the one-pot pasta recipes on Budget Bytes as a base (like this one, but we usually asd Italian sausage or kielbas), so that the eggplant and squash or whatever veg cooked for a while. The sauce did a good job masking the eggplanty flavor I don't like.
posted by Teadog at 1:08 PM on July 25

Best answer: This recipe for black pepper tofu and eggplant is on my to-make list this week, and she claims the eggplant dissolves - I can report back!
posted by quadrilaterals at 1:12 PM on July 25 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Cut them into thin strips and sautee them with sweet onions until both are soft. the sweetness of the onions is the more powerful flavor by far. simple and delish.
posted by OHenryPacey at 1:19 PM on July 25

Best answer: Ooh, I highly recommend making fire-roasted eggplant. If you have a gas stove or a grill, roast eggplant over an open flame directly but at medium heat, turning the eggplant frequently with tongs, until the skin is charred all around (and then some). If you don't have access to an open flame you can also cut the eggplant in half and roast it at 450F in the oven for about 20 minutes (assuming this is your standard very large round american eggplant), cut side down (put a little oil underneath so it doesn't stick too much).

What you end up with is melty, creamy eggplant insides and crispy eggplant skin. You can separate the two and reserve crispy skin flakes for someone who really likes eggplant.

From the melty, creamy insides, you can do three absolutely delicious things:

1. Make baba ghanoush. Mix a couple of cloves of smashed garlic, some sumac, a couple of tablespoons of tahini, and a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice with the eggplant. Salt to taste. Dip your pita and eat. YUM.

2. Make baingan raita, an indian preparation where you mix roasted eggplant into yogurt. The yogurt is generally flavored with a "tempering" seasoning that goes like this: heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil, add a pinch of asafetida, 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds, 4-5 curry leaves, and red chili flakes. Toast until mustard seeds sputter. Mix into the yogurt with the fire roasted eggplant innards. You can also add in chopped raw onions and cilantro but these are optional. Salt to taste. Dip naan into this and eat. YUM.

3. Make baingan bharta, another indian preparation where you start with a standard desi curry base: onions, garlic, ginger, green chili, and cumin all fried up, add in a can of diced tomatoes and stir until the mixture turns into a well-cooked paste, add some curry masala and salt to taste. Into this basic curry base mix in your fire roasted eggplant innards. Serve with rice or naan. YUM.
posted by MiraK at 1:23 PM on July 25 [10 favorites]

Best answer: I don't have a specific recipe, but steaming chunks of eggplant before applying flavours (either using a stovetop steamer or in the microwave) does a lot to achieve this texture, with the stovetop method steamed for around 15 minutes coming out the meltiest. Steaming the shit out of them and then very lightly frying them or tossing them in a sauce of your choice works way better than either frying them from raw or cooking them in a slow cooker imo, both of those increase the chances of the eggplant coming out tough or bitter or both in my experience. I can usually only get the Italian kind and this method will still get them super soft.
posted by terretu at 1:23 PM on July 25 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Imam bayildi - means "the imam fainted" in Turkish (I've heard two stories of the origin, one is he fainted because it tasted so good, the other that he fainted when he found out how expensive it was because of how much olive oil it uses.) This will be better the smaller and younger your eggplants are. (If the eggplants are large and seedy, after cutting them in half sprinkle the cut sides with salt and let them sit for half an hour, then rinse.)

For topping:
1 28 oz. can chopped tomatoes (or chopped fresh tomatoes)
2 big onions
Saute onions in a big glug of olive oil until translucent, then add tomatoes and cook until it is a thick stew consistency (not liquidy)

While tomato mixture is cooking:
2 large or 4 small eggplants
Cut eggplants in half lengthwise and saute cut sides down in 1 cup olive oil until cut sides are brown
Place eggplants cut side up in a baking dish
Top eggplants with tomato mixture

Cook in a low oven (325 F) for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until the eggplant is very tender ("melting")
Serve warm or at room temperature
posted by Daily Alice at 1:26 PM on July 25 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Ooh, I have two favorites for this! Stuffed eggplant Parmesan (I am a vegetarian, and I’ve used this recipe both without the meat and with a fake meat sub. Excellent both ways) and black pepper tofu and eggplant. One more I just remembered but don’t have a specific recipe - I once made a baba ganoush pasta that was delicious. As far as I remember, it was just baba ganoush + pasta, but a little garlic sauce/toum on top would be delicious.
posted by Empidonax at 1:57 PM on July 25

Best answer: Yuxiang eggplant (this particular recipe includes meat, but just leave it out) and dengaku
posted by Jeanne at 2:11 PM on July 25

Best answer: Oh, and this eggplant and walnut pesto pasta salad is pretty great.
posted by Jeanne at 2:12 PM on July 25

Best answer: eggplant tartare, think vegan steak tartare. The cooking instructions in this recipe are written to accommodate the pot they are trying to sell. I’d just cook the eggplant by halving it, cutting into the flesh (without cutting the skin) to create a grid pattern, brush with oil and cook in a medium hot oven for half an hr or so. Scrape the cooked flesh out of the skin with a spoon.
posted by koahiatamadl at 2:58 PM on July 25

Best answer: I love this baba ganoush recipe. I would recommend using a tiny bit less garlic and lemon juice than it calls for and adding more after tasting it. I would also recommend not draining as much of the eggplant water as the recipe calls for - that's where the smoky flavour lives. You can puree it as much as you want so it gets super creamy. Best with BBQ eggplant, but oven roasted is good too.
posted by wheatlets at 3:41 PM on July 25 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Eggplant caviar! It takes a long time to cook but makes an excellent spread on toast.
posted by jknx at 4:02 PM on July 25 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Baigan Achari, and I use this recipe. You might find it difficult to find kolonji seeds (black onion) but they really do make ALL the difference. Likewise, if you have an Indian supermarket near you, you'll find jars of garlic paste and ginger paste, which all my Indian friends use in their kitchens. Otherwise, make the garlic/ginger paste as per the recipe. I also use tinned, chopped tomatoes.

I've tweaked the recipe for the Instant Pot as follows:

I saute the fennel and kolonji seeds in a skillet on the stovetop, add the garlic and ginger paste, the spices and tomatoes and cook this part as per the recipe. (I've found that the saute function on the Instant Pot gets the oil far too hot, causing the seeds to burn and a massive liquid-hits-oil spatter when the tomatoes go in - so it's much simpler and safer to do this part of the recipe on the stovetop. Takes just a few minutes.)

Then I tip it all in the Instant Pot, add the cut-up eggplant (which I have NOT pre-fried), give it all a stir, seal and cook it on High Pressure for 12 minutes.

I've found that not frying the eggplant makes absolutely no difference to the texture or flavour of the dish, and makes it much healthier.

Every single person I've ever served this to has raved about it and can't believe how authentic it tastes, or that it doesn't have any of the usual curry spices of cumin or garam masala in it.
posted by essexjan at 4:07 PM on July 25 [1 favorite]

Best answer: SBS Food has your back: The best way to eat eggplants? Braise them
Pretty much all the recipes linked in that article meet your criteria. I've tried a few (Nasu Dengaku, Fatteh bi Batenjan, and Eggplant braised with trahana are particularly recommended), and can vouch for the general reliability of SBS Food's recipes - I've never had one go wrong. There's also an amazing Lebanese eggplant stew which I can't quite remember the name of that's my platonic ideal of silky eggplant; if I do I'll come back and comment again.
posted by threecheesetrees at 4:47 PM on July 25 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: These are all amazing, thank you! I won’t mark favourites yet but they all will be. More recipes are welcome!
posted by warriorqueen at 5:43 PM on July 25

Best answer: In my experience, peeling the eggplant will go a long way towards getting a more creamy texture - the skin or peel tends to hold together even after interior is soft and squishy.
posted by metahawk at 6:24 PM on July 25 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Ok, I'm a heathen who will make fish fragrant eggplant (vegan!) with Italian eggplant and it works out fine. So, if you're willing to be a little inauthentic, I'd recommend it.

But, onto recipes that are supposed to use Italian eggplant:

Superiority Burger's Charred Broccoli and Eggplant Salad is wildly delicious. It's kind of a lot of faffing around, so I often just roast a little marinated tempeh when I roast the eggplant and just have the salad with tempeh added for dinner. It's too many dishes to just be a side dish.

If you have access to the Tenderheart cookbook, there's a recipe that's very simple and way more delicious than it has any right to be. It's just roasted eggplant topped with dilled marinara lentils and cashew cream. Roast the eggplant til it absolutely collapses and it just melts into the saucy lentils.

Vegan Richa's South Indian Chickpea Eggplant Stew is really excellent and very quick and easy. You can definitely melt the eggplant down into goo with great success. I can't find the recipe on the internet, but it's in this book (which is fabulous and worth checking out if you haven't).

Ajvar is another delicious dip with eggplant if you run out of enthusiasm for baba ganouj.
posted by snaw at 6:30 PM on July 25 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Seconding imam bayildi, eggplant raita, and baba ganoush. So, so good.
posted by VelveteenBabbitt at 6:43 PM on July 25 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There's a delicious smitten kitchen recipe where you roast tomatoes, eggplant, onion, and garlic w olive oil. Then along w salt and any herbs you want, you blend them with water into a delicious soup.
posted by bookworm4125 at 7:49 PM on July 25

Best answer: We've really enjoyed Francis Lam's recipe for pasta with melted eggplant sauce.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 5:50 AM on July 26

Best answer: Here's another recipe where they basically turn into a sauce, from EatingWell. It looks like the folks who bought them out removed the recipe from the website (why?!), but I found it here: Soba Noodles with Roasted Eggplant
posted by amarynth at 6:34 AM on July 26

This thread is directly responsible for the extremely delicious tofu & steamed eggplant in vaguely sichuan-inspired sauce dish that my household just enjoyed over jasmine rice for dinner...
posted by terretu at 11:23 AM on July 26 [2 favorites]

I really enjoyed this take on eggplant parmesan:

* It slices the eggplant into "steaks", and if you roast them a bit longer they definitely get pretty mushy
* You can ignore the fake mozzarella part, it's really not necessary from my experience
posted by foxfirefey at 11:38 AM on July 26

Since I am late to this party, most of my favorites are already here -- great!

But there is one thing I feel is my own invention and that is using eggplants as the meat replacement in a "bolognese" sauce. I make it exactly like I would a meat based sauce*, but with finely chopped eggplant instead of meat. Everyone in my family prefers this to the meat version, and we are all omnivores. It is perfect for a lasagne bolognese, which uses bechamel sauce rather than ricotta, and you can make this with plant-based milk, though here I prefer cow milk.

I use my pressure cooker, and I don't cook it for quite as long as the meat version, but obviously you get more creaminess the longer you cook it. Start with 30 minutes + natural release and see how that works for you.

I've seen multiple videos where chefs mince the vegetables for a bolognese in a food processor, so I'm sure that will work here, too. I just haven't tried it. I like chopping.

*The linked recipe uses milk in the sauce, and sometimes I do, but it is fine without in both meat and eggplant versions.
posted by mumimor at 12:31 PM on July 26

Also late but no one's mentioned caponata so here goes: start from this recipe, roast the eggplant longer, and experiment. Now and then I use my trusty potato masher on the eggplant.
posted by kingless at 1:13 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]

Indian roasted eggplant curry! I'm probably going to misspell, but it Baingan Bharta is one of my fave dishes that I learned how to prepare in the height of the pandemic. It's creamy (can be vegan milk) and tomato-y and full of delicious spices.
posted by Summers at 1:16 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]

The secret to sweet-tasting eggplant is to cut in cubes and/or peel them, then salt them very heavily--I actually put my hands in the bowl and coat the cubes-- then leave them in a strainer for at least an hour so that most of the brown liquid comes out. You can then rinse some of the salt off and cook them as you like.
posted by rpfields at 8:27 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]

Instant Pot Baingan Bharta - this is the recipe I use because the instant pot makes it so much easier.
posted by automatic cabinet at 5:34 PM on July 27 [1 favorite]