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Eggplant: A Nutritious Vegetable

Eggplant is a versatile vegetable that can be cooked in many ways. It has a deep purple skin and a spongy flesh that absorbs flavors well. Eggplant is rich in antioxidants, fiber, and vitamin B1, which can help lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and inflammation. Baba ghanoush, a Lebanese dish, and moussaka, a Greek dish, are some of the most popular dishes made with eggplant. Eggplant is also known as aubergine in some parts of the world. It is used in many cuisines around the world such as Italian, Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and more. However, here I will introduce original recipes with eggplant from Iran.

There are many recipes that use eggplant not just as a main course but also as a dessert or side dish. You can find more recipes by searching online or in cookbooks. It is interesting to note that some people have never tried eggplant before or do not know how to use it in their cooking. I hope these recipes will encourage you to try this delicious vegetable.

Before you start cooking, I suggest you read the instruction on this webpage : how to cut eggplant to learn how to cut eggplant for different recipes. In most Persian recipes, eggplant is cut vertically.

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You can find the recipes and the name of the dishes below.

Ingredients:

6 medium eggplant
2 medium tomatoes
2 medium eggs
4 cloves Garlic

1 tbsp Tomato paste
½ tbsp turmeric
2 tbsp oil
as much as you desire salt, black pepper, ground chili pepper and bay leaves to taste

Recipe:

Roast the whole eggplant. Dice the tomato. Dice the onion.
Peel the skin off of the eggplant and chop the eggplant in small pieces.
Fry the diced onions in a pot with 2 tablespoon vegetable oil until golden.
Add the diced tomatoes to the pot.
Add the chopped eggplants to the pot.
Add salt, ground chili pepper and ground bay leaves, stir and continue frying for 5 more minutes.
Let it cool down for few minutes then mash the mixture thoroughly. Add 2 tsp of tomato paste, stir and simmer for 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

3 Large Eggplants
453g Beef Neck (or lamb)
2 Cups Rice
226g Kashk (Whey)

3 Onions
Turmeric, Salt, Black pepper powder, Crushed Mint
7 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
2 Garlic Cloves

Recipe:

Slice 2 onions. Peel and slice the eggplants vertically (about ½-inch thick) . Then, smash the garlic cloves and boil 4-5 cups of water.
Cook the beef with onion and spice mix. Meanwhile, fry the eggplants in 2 tbsp vegetable oil and salt (as preferred). Flip eggplants over so both sides become brown.
Fry the sliced onions in frying pan with 5 tbsp vegetable oil.
Put 2 cups of rice in a pot, add 5 cups of boiling water, simmer until tender and all the water's evaporated.
Remove/spare 3/4 of the fried onions from the frying pan, add spice mix and fry for 5 more minutes. Next, remove the onions. Add the smashed garlic and crushed mint to the pan and fry for a minutes.
Add the fried eggplants and the beef to the rice, stir and mash thoroughly. Then, add the fried garlic/mint and fried onions, blend completely.
Add boiling water and the kashk to a pot, simmer for 10 minutes over low heat, then add it to the eggplant/rice pot, mix well. Cook for 15 minutes.
Decorate with the spared fried onions and fried mint.

Ingredients:

Small eggplant (1kg)
8oogr Tenderloin meat
Half a kilogram of mint, parsley and spinach vegetables

A cup of verjuice
One medium onion
Pepper, salt and oil as needed

Recipe:

Cut the onion into regular pieces and fry with oil and turmeric. Then, add the meat. After the meat becomes brown, pour a few glasses of water on it and let it simmer until well cooked.
Chop the vegetables into small pieces and add them to the cooked meat.
Next, add a cup of verjuice to it.
Keep it on the flame to reduce the liquid.
In the last step, fry the vertically sliced eggplant and add it to the stew.

Ingredients:

3 Medium Eggplants eggplant (1Kg)
2 Small Onions
2 Tbsp Crushed Mint

Ground Chili Pepper, Salt
Oil
1/2 Cup Kashk

Recipe:

Peel the eggplants and slice and slice the onions.
Fry the vertically sliced eggplants in a frying pan with 2 tbsp vegetable oil. Meanwhile, fry the onions until golden.
Remove the onions and saute 2 tbsp of crushed mint in the same pot.
Mash the fried eggplants in a big bowl and add the fried onion to the bowl and stir well.
Add ground chili pepper, salt and the fried crushed mint to the bowl.
Add the kashk (whey) to the bowl and mix thoroughly until well blended.

Ingredients:

800gr meat
8–9 Tbsp vegetable oil
6 small eggplants
turmeric ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup double-concentrated tomato paste 3 medium tomatoes
fresh lime juice
Cooked basmati rice

Recipe:

Cut the onion into regular pieces and fry with oil and turmeric. Then, add the meat. After the meat becomes brown, pour a few glasses of water on it and let it cook well.
Fry the vertically sliced eggplants in a frying pan with 2 tbsp vegetable oil.
Stir in tomato paste and cook, stirring, until slightly darkened in color, about 2 minutes.
Add tomatoes; cook, still stirring, until tomatoes have burst and mixture is very thick, 7–9 minutes.
Add eggplant into the pot and season lightly with salt. Pour in 5 cups water; bring to a simmer. Gently stirring occasionally, until thickened and eggplant is almost creamy in texture, 40–50 minutes.
Add lime juice when dish is finished cooking.
Serve it with cooked rice.