Roasted Eggplant With Tahini, Pine Nuts, and Lentils Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to cooking eggplant? ›

Eggplants are known to absorb a lot of fat while cooking. A useful tip to prevent sogginess and greasiness is to salt sliced or diced eggplant and let it sit for an hour. This helps to draw out moisture. Next, rinse and drain any liquid from the sliced eggplant, then pat dry before cooking.

Brining adds flavor and texture to eggplants. "Mix spices and salt with water, then soak sliced eggplant in the brine for 30 minutes before cooking.

When it's cooked, “it should turn fully tender, all the flesh should be somewhat custardy. If you have to, hammer it a bit, knock it around, let it start to collapse.” When you're roasting eggplant, like in YuChen's recipe, “make sure you give them enough space so they can cook evenly,” she says.

There are a few cooking techniques that can be used to improve the digestibility of eggplants. Firstly, roasting or grilling them can help to break down their fibers and make them easier to digest. Secondly, cooking them with herbs and spices like ginger, cumin, and coriander can also improve their digestibility.

Cut off the stem and nearby areas before cooking. The stem and area near the stem tend to be where bitter compounds collect. Slice or chop the eggplant and sprinkle the pieces with salt. Allow them to sit for about 30 minutes, then pat dry before cooking.

Older recipes call for salting eggplant to draw out the bitter juices, but today's eggplants are less bitter (unless very large), so salting is largely unnecessary. It will, however, help the spongy flesh absorb less oil and crisp up like a dream.

The skin is edible, so you can leave it on when preparing eggplant. Cut off the stem and then cut into your desired shape—slices and cubes are popular options. Cut off and discard any parts that are turning brown. Those parts are more bitter than the normally creamy white interior.

Why Eggplants Can Be Bitter. While most eggplants these days are bred to be less bitter, every once in a while you may still get one that is. The reason for this is likely because it's old. Young, fresh eggplants that you purchase at the farmers market are rarely bitter because they're newly picked.

Milk is said to help draw out the bitterness in eggplant. Our recipe doesn't call for milk, but if you're worried that your eggplant will taste bitter, you can soak the slices in milk for 20 to 30 minutes. Drain and pat them dry before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.

Answer. Eggplant flesh will have tan to brown colored spots around the seeds. If this is the color you are referring to, it is edible. If the flesh is more brown than white, the eggplant may be spoiling and should be discarded.

Is undercooked eggplant OK? ›

Can You Eat Eggplant Raw? Luckily, the answer is yes! While the leaves and flowers can be toxic, the eggplant itself is safe to consume both raw and cooked, and the compound that some might be sensitive to, solanine, is only toxic when consumed in large quantities.

Not cooking it in enough fat.

You need to be a little more generous in order for there to be enough oil on the outside of the eggplant to cook properly.

What are the symptoms of nightshade foods intolerance? Nightshade intolerance may produce symptoms such as bloating, gas, heartburn, nausea, and diarrhea after eating foods that are members of the nightshade family, such as eggplant, potato, tomato, and pepper.

Eggplant contains cholinesterase that blocks anti-inflammatory substances in the body and therefore promotes INFLAMMATION. The amount of these substances may vary but usually small and good often negate the bad, however some patient may be very sensitive to those substances.

Turns out, it is not uncommon to experience an itchy mouth and throat after eating eggplant. This could be attributed to the fact that the vegetable has a high concentration of histamine and serotonin.

Fried or baked eggplant is delicious, but they are not the only ways to cook eggplant. Try it sautéed, stir-fried, grilled, or broiled.

While the skin of a small young eggplant is edible, the skin becomes bitter on larger or older eggplants and should be peeled. When in doubt, the answer to, "Do you peel eggplant before cooking?" is yes, peel it. Use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to remove the skin.