VegBox Recipes
Aubergine / Eggplant
Aubergines are also known as eggplants, depending on where you come from. They're a much misunderstood vegetable, often being served over-cooked and mushy, which doesn't do them any favours. Knowing how to prepare them gives you a chance to enjoy aubergines.
- In Season?
- Best in August and September
- Buy?
- Choose aubergines that are firm and shiny-skinned. You should feel them "give" slightly, if you give them a gentle squeeze.
Buy them too early in the season and they'll be bitter... - Store?
- Store aubergine in the salad compartment of the fridge. That way they'll keep for up to a week.
- Freeze?
- No - not even cooked. Really yucky.
- Cook?
- You can either use aubergine as it is, by washing well, removing the stalk and then cutting or slicing.
or...
You can "salt and drain" them.
More Aubergine / Eggplant Information
Aubergines are perhaps most famous in Italian cooking.It can be difficult to grow them successfully in the UK, but many box schemes and organic farms manage by using polytunnels.
The Egg Plant is a member of the nightshade family, along with potatoes, peppers and tomatoes.
Aubergine can be purple or white, or any shade in between. This year we have had the tradtional fat banana shape, as well as balls and even think stick-like aubergines. All were delicious.
Aubergines (egg plants) don’t just come in purple. You can also get them in white and lilac. Which may look fancy, but they taste pretty much the same.
They’re a really common ingredient in Mediterranean food, and although they are grown in the UK, they don’t do as well here, given our somewhat cooler climes. Very often this means that UK aubergines are grown in green houses and polytunnels, but if you’re in search of a delicious ripe flavour, I’m afraid there’s no substitute for intense sunshine.
This vegetable has turned out to be something of a bone of contention on our recipe feedback pages. In our experience, a lot of aubergine dinner disasters are down to using the aubergine before it’s ripe. So whenever the eggplant season is in full swing, try out a recipe or two and discover how delicious they really can be.
What To Do With Aubergine / Eggplant
You can either use aubergine as it is, by washing well, removing the stalk and then cutting or slicing.
or...
You can "salt and drain" them.
To do this, wash, remove the stalk and then cut or slice the aubergine.
Put it in a colander and sprinkle well with salt. Put a weight (a bowl, for example) on top of the aubergine and leave it in the sink for half an hour. Rinse thoroughly and dry well.
This draws the water out of the aubergine and makes them less bitter. It also means they absorb less oil if you're frying them.
The jury's out on whether you need to do this. If I'm baking or grilling aubergine, I don't bother. But if I want it to go crispy, I might. It depends how much time I have!
Little Known Aubergine / Eggplant Facts
- You can tell how an aubergine will taste from the skin! If the skin is firm and shiny, it should be fine. If it’s gone dull, that means it’ll taste bitter and might ruin your recipe. Watch out!
- In China, the aubergine was known historically as the Malayan purple melon.
- Until relatively recently, the aubergine, which biologically is actually a fruit, had been attributed with the power to cause madness, leprosy, and bad breath. This may account for it being used mostly ornamentally until the 20th century!
| Graham's Rhubarb Pudding |
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| Ingredients |
Method
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| Cupboard-To-Table |
Suggested Aubergine Recipes
- Amanda G's Aubergine Stack of Loveliness
Our friend Amanda shared this recipe with us, which is perfect for barbeques and likely to get a big thumbs up even from non-vegetarians.
- Aubergine & Courgette Bake
This is a great way of using up spare courgettes and aubergines, towards the end of the veg box's week. And it's so easy!
- Autumn Pizza
Don't be put off making your own pizza by thinking it's complicated - it's actually really simple. This one uses autumn veg box ingredients to make a delicious topping.
- Grilled Aubergine with Tomatoes and Goats Cheese
This recipe in its basic form is so simple it barely warrants writing a recipe card, as it boils down to: slice the aubergine, grill it with a bit of oil on, put on a dollop of tomato sauce, slice the cheese and put it on top, grill again, eat!
- Imam Bayildi
The name of this dish translates as "the imam fainted". Depending on which version of the story you read, he fainted either because of how delicious it was, or because of the amount of oil the traditional version uses... No such trouble here though.
When Can I Cook This?
Aubergines (or eggplants if you're from the USA) come into season in the UK in May, and are at their best in June, July, August, September and until mid October.
- Melanzane Parmigiano
Parmesan-baked aubergine. Simply delicious. If you're one of the many who's not convinced by the humble aubergine, I suggest you give this one a go.
- Mozarella and Aubergine Lunchtime Baguettes
Here in the UK, we are most used to cooking and eating aubergines in bakes and casseroles, so we thought it might be more interesting to include a humble sandwich idea – now you don’t need to wait till dinner time to rummage in your veg box!
- Sybil's Aubergine Bake
This recipe has been shared with us by vegbox enthusiast Sybil, who says:
"I was messing around with vegetables in the vegetable box and came up with this with what I had in my fridge and cupboard."
That's exactly our kind of cooking, Sybil!
- Vegetable Tempura
Although it's deep-fried, as long as the oil is hot enough and you drain the tempura after cooking, it's not that bad...! Quick, delicious and a nice change from sticking your veg in a curry!
Got one? Send us your recipe!
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