What can you cook quickly from eggplant? A whole host of dishes, including: hot and cold appetizers, casseroles, salads, stews. This vegetable has a special feature — bitterness, which in some cases is best removed before cooking. Because of that the process can drag out, since the eggplant needs to sit for at least half an hour and release its juice. But if you skip this step, replacing the juice release by rinsing the sliced fruit under running water, you'll be able to cook fast.
The five most commonly used ingredients in fast eggplant recipes:
| Product | Calories per 100g | Protein g per 100g | Fats g per 100g | Carbohydrates g per 100g |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eggplant | 24 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 7.1 |
| Tomatoes | 23 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 3.8 |
| Bell pepper | 27 | 1.3 | 0 | 5.7 |
| Herbs | 41 | 3.7 | 0.4 | 7 |
| Soy sauce | 51 | 6 | 0 | 66.6 |
One of the quick and tasty eggplant dishes is Greek moussaka, something like our casserole. It's made like this:
- Cut eggplant that's been soaked and squeezed of bitterness into slices and fry it in vegetable oil.
- Fry the onion and the ground meat.
- Add chopped tomatoes to the meat, start stewing, season with salt and pepper.
- Put a layer of eggplant in a baking dish, and a meat layer on top of it.
- Alternate them so that eggplant is on top.
- Pour over the prepared sauce, sprinkle with grated cheese and bake in the oven until done.
- For the sauce: fry the flour in butter; pour in the milk, stirring; add nutmeg, salt, grated cheese; cool slightly and stir in the beaten egg.
The dish can be made in 40 minutes.
Quick-cooked eggplant is part of a great many dishes of Italian, Spanish and Greek cuisines — in general, of the Mediterranean countries. Italians, for example, like to make caponata, vegetable lasagna, and a dressing for spaghetti from it. A salad of grilled eggplant turns out wonderfully tasty. For it, onion and eggplant are grilled, then cut into pieces along with avocado. They're mixed and dressed with a sauce of balsamic vinegar, oregano, salt, and olive oil. A light, vitamin-rich snack for any occasion.
The five most nutritious fast eggplant recipes:
| Name of the dish | Cooking time | Calories per 100g | User rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fried eggplant in batter in a frying pan | 20 min | 349 | +222 |
| Eggplant rolls with nuts and cheese | 30 min | 305 | +246 |
| Chinese-style eggplant with pork | 20 min | 296 | +42 |
| Georgian eggplant appetizer | 10 min | 268 | +11 |
| Eggplant and zucchini with cheese in the microwave | 30 min | 243 | +62 |
Tips and tricks:
- eggplant will soak up less oil when frying if you douse it with boiling water beforehand
- to keep eggplant in appetizers in a nice shape, don't remove the skin
- eggplant takes on an unpleasant taste after contact with metal
- remove the bitterness from eggplant before cooking by soaking it in water or sprinkling it with salt to draw out the juice
- if you cook eggplant over high heat, it won't darken