Easy and super appetizing eggplant recipes

Ideas for cooking with eggplants

Besides being one of the essential ingredients of ratatouille and one of the queens of stuffed vegetables, aubergine is very healthy and gives a lot of play in the kitchen. Try these recipes and, with the tricks that we give you below, take advantage of all its properties.

Meat Stuffed eggplants

Wash the aubergines, cut them in half lengthwise, make cross-shaped cuts in the pulp, spread them with oil and bake for 30 min. at 180º. Remove the pulp and chop it. Sauté minced meat, add minced onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the pulp, salt and pepper and mix. Add 200 ml of fried tomato. Stir, simmer for 10 minutes, remove and let it warm. Fill the aubergines with the mixture, sprinkle them with mozzarella and gratin. Serve them over fried tomato and with fresh basil.

Eggplants with honey

Eggplant with honey is one of the most sought after recipes despite being one of the easiest recipes. Cut the washed aubergines into ½ cm thick slices and season lightly. Pass them through the flour and shake to remove the excess. Fry them in plenty of hot oil but do not get to smoke. Leave them on absorbent paper. Sprinkle them with a string of honey. And it serves with lettuce leaves and tomato salad.

Baked eggplants

There are endless ways to make baked aubergines, but we love this one because it's so easy and it's like eating a light pizza. Pick the aubergines, wash and dry them. Cut them lengthwise into slices half a centimeter thick. Preheat the oven to 220º. Place the aubergine slices on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, season them and cover with slices of mozzarella, tomatoes and bacon. Sprinkle with basil, add a thread of oil and bake for 10 minutes.

Grilled aubergines

Grilled aubergines is one of the easiest ways to cook it and, no matter how little you try, it is delicious as in this vegetable grill with tomato vinaigrette. To make it, you just have to cut the eggplant and the other vegetables into slices or not very thin sheets, and grill them on the grill or grill. See recipe step by step.

Battered aubergines and stuffed with cheese

Wash the aubergines, trim them and cut them into half-inch slices. Wash and dry them with kitchen paper. Salt and pepper them, put the cheese slices of a similar size on the middle and cover with the rest. Sprinkle the oregano and lightly flour these little eggplant booklets. Pass them through an egg and then through breadcrumbs and fry them in the hot oil until golden brown on both sides. Let them drain on kitchen paper and serve. Do you want to know how many calories your favorite cheese has?

Aubergines stuffed with ratatouille and egg

Top the aubergines, wash them and split them lengthwise. Empty them and steam them for 5 min. Sauté diced onion and pepper for 10 min in a saucepan. Add cubes of zucchini and the pulp of the aubergine and cook for 10 more minutes. Season, add tomato sauce, mix and remove. Preheat the oven to 200º. Fill the aubergines with the vegetables, put them on a refractory tray, crack an egg on each one and sprinkle them with cheese. Bake them until the egg is set and serve. Find out how many eggs you can eat on a diet.

Eggplant lasagna

Preheat the oven to 180º. Wash 2 aubergines, dry them and cut them into slices. Salt and pepper them, brush them with oil and grill them on a griddle for a couple of minutes. Peel and chop 5 tomatoes and 2 onions. Sauté the onion for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper and cook for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with washed and chopped basil, and remove. Assemble the lasagna in an ovenproof dish alternating layers of eggplant, tomato and slices of cheese and cooked ham. Sprinkle with grated cheese and bake for 15 minutes.

Roasted aubergine ratatouille style

Ratatouille is the French version of ratatouille and Catalan sanfaina, a recipe with eggplant, zucchini, pepper, onion and tomato, which works as a main dish or as a garnish for meat, fish, eggs … To make this, cut aubergine, sliced zucchini, tomato and onion, put them on a baking sheet over a sauce of onion, pepper and tomato, and bake 40-45 min at 180º. Let stand and garnish with fresh basil.

Tuna filled Eggplants

Wash the aubergines, cut them into thick slices and cook them for a few minutes, until they are soft. Remove them and carefully separate part of the pulp with a teaspoon. Chop the pulp and mix it with diced tomatoes, chopped onion, julienne lettuce, mushroom cubes drizzled with lemon and canned tuna. Season to taste and fill the aubergines with this salad.

Thanks to its high water and fiber content, as well as its low percentage of carbohydrates and negligible fats, eggplant is a highly recommended vegetable if you are following a diet to lose weight. But you have to take into account how to cook it …

Recipes with aubergines

Stuffed Eggplant. They can be filled with minced meat, tuna, ratatouille, rice, quinoa …
Baked eggplants. It is one of the healthiest ways to cook it.
Breaded eggplants. Just floured or breaded with flour, egg and bread they are delicious. But be careful, that way they catch a lot of fat.
Eggplants with honey. The bitterness of the eggplant combines wonderfully with the sweetness of the honey.
Eggplant lasagna. You can substitute the pasta for slices or slices of eggplant.
Grilled aubergines. It is the easiest way and one of the most beneficial.

How to cook eggplant

Whole or peeled? To benefit from all its properties, it is recommended to consume all of it, including the skin and seeds, since it is in these parts that many of its properties are concentrated.
The best cooking. It is always eaten cooked because raw it is bitter and indigestible. One of the best ways is roasted in a casserole or baked and grilled, but it is also eaten fried, stewed and steamed. However, boiling it is not recommended because its pulp falls apart.
Precautions. If it is eaten fried, it must be taken into account that it absorbs a lot of fat, due to its spongy pulp, and it can go from being a vegetable with very few calories to being a real caloric bomb.

Trick so that it does not take so much fat

To achieve this, it is necessary to salt it before cooking and leave it to rest. The sodium molecules cause the water in the eggplant to come out and the pulp to become more dense. This makes it harder for you to absorb oil or other fats.

Cut the eggplant into slices or into cubes, sprinkle it with a little salt and let it rest for about 30 minutes in a colander, so that it releases juice.
After that time, rinse it to remove the salt, and carefully dry it with absorbent paper or a clean kitchen cloth.

Eggplant properties

Although it is not the richest vegetable in vitamins and minerals, aubergine is highly recommended for its many benefits.

It helps the liver function and the digestion of fats.
Lowers cholesterol level and prevents arteriosclerosis.
Due to its richness in fiber, it facilitates intestinal transit.
It is an excellent diuretic and is indicated in cases of fluid retention and in kidney and urine infections.
It has antioxidant properties, which is why it helps prevent certain types of cancer and heart disease.