Eggplant: beyond the emoji

Bella Strauli shares all the delicious things you can make with the humble eggplant

Late last year, as I was leaving lockdown in Melbourne and on the hunt for some new ingredients to inspire my cooking, I stumbled across the humble eggplant. The first time I had eggplant properly was in Spain from a dish called berenjenas con miel which directly translates to ‘eggplants with honey’. It is a common tapas dish of sliced eggplant fried in a batter, and drizzled in molasses, agave or honey. Here are some eggplant recipes I have come across since I have re-discovered eggplant as a versatile vegetable, surprisingly found in many cuisines. 

Eggplant taco:

Of course this fusion is not something many people expect, but I came across this at Bad Hombres in Sydney, which is a vegetarian Mexican restaurant smashing out some of the best tacos I’ve ever had (I’m a taco fanatic, they are so good). Their version is served with corn tortillas, perfectly caramelised soft eggplant with a cashew crema. When I recreated this I aimed for a vegetarian version of the Birria taco with an asian influence, making a soft eggplant mixture with asian flavours such as sesame oil, soy sauce, chilli and shallots. I topped this with a lime crema (using sour cream and lime) and topped it with the notorious El Yucateco chilli jalapeno hot sauce (which should be a staple in your fridge if you like tacos even a little bit). 

Eggplant pasta:

Moving on to Italian Pasta alla Norma, which I just refer to as my grilled eggplant pasta. I don’t know where I first got the recipe or if I even used a recipe initially but altered the method along the way. I start by slicing eggplant into cubes, grilling them in the oven for 25 minutes. During that time, I make marinara/arrabiata sauce (depending if you like chilli or not) and cook rigatoni pasta. When the eggplant is done, toss the perfectly golden eggplant pieces in the sauce and add the pasta. If you are feeling adventurous (we always are), stick the pasta back in the oven dish and top with mozzarella, and grill for a few more minutes. You can make this with any pasta but rigatoni is my favourite. 

Eggplant curry:

For this recipe I use RecipeTinEats brinjal curry recipe as a guide of proportions, but I always end up putting my own spin on it. This dish is a South Indian flavour inspired meal, usually served with rice or naan. I grill my eggplants in cubes the same way I would with the pasta, however instead of marinara sauce while the eggplant is cooking I cook up a curry base including onions, garlic, ginger and any curry paste I might have in my fridge. When the eggplants are ready I deglaze my pan with some water, half a stock cube and tomato paste and add the eggplant. You have to let this cook down and thicken and as the eggplants break down it makes this delicious thick curry which I always add coconut milk or cream, coriander and chilli flakes. 

Eggplant dumplings 

At this point, when I wanted to put eggplants in everything. I then experimented with making dumplings using the Gow Gee wonton wrap skins from Woolworths (or any of the ones they have). I found a recipe from Blue Dragon which provides a step by step method of making an aubergine filling for dumplings. I still oven grill my eggplant instead of frying it like the recipe suggests but the recipe is a good guide for a thick paste to fill the dumplings with. This results in a sweet, soft, messy eggplant but perfect topped with a satay chilli sauce and for a burst of unique sweet flavour.  By the way, this is a very fun date idea. 

Eggplant pizza:

I still have yet to perfect this recipe, and it doesn’t quite come out as I imagine it. The first time I had eggplant on pizza, from Pizza Madre in Sydney, it added an element of smokiness, and was complemented amazingly with fior di latte and ricotta to add freshness. The difficulty with eggplant on pizza is attempting to not make it too soggy but allow the eggplant to bring out the flavours. This dish is a work-in-progress for me. 

Of course there are many more recipes you can make with eggplant including the humble eggplant parmigiana, moussaka, baba ganoush, grilled eggplant in salads, served with spicy yoghurt (look at Ottolenghi's recipe!) and many more. This is just a starting point for this versatile vegetable and hopefully I encourage you to give eggplant a second look in the grocery store. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.