This eggplant lasagne recipe is a great way to use a late summer glut of eggplant (or aubergine). You can use a combination of whatever vegetables you have available - I had not quite enough eggplant and courgettes that were still producing so I used those. It uses lasagne sheets broken into pieces and stirred through the mix, which keeps it simple and all in one pan rather than bothering with layering the vegetables and pasta. Of course you can do that if you prefer or use any type of pasta you … [Read more...]
Chinese Eggplant with Spicy Garlic Sauce Recipe
After having a delicious but simple eggplant dish at a Chinese restaurant, I decided to see if I could replicate this at home. I found a few recipes online but didn’t have some of the ingredients so this is my version of Chinese Eggplant with Spicy Garlic Sauce. 1 medium eggplant or several smaller ones 1 spring onion 2 cloves garlic 1 red chilli 1/2 inch fresh ginger 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 1/2 tsp sugar Oil Chop eggplant into small pieces. If you like … [Read more...]
Layered Eggplant & Capsicum Salad
This layered eggplant & capsicum salad is a tasty and colourful way of presenting late summer vegetables. I love the use of fresh herbs and the combination of Middle Eastern flavours. Although the recipe gives quantities, just go with what you have. The first time I made this I didn't have any capsicum ready in the garden and I'd used the last of my frozen capsicum so I used a jar of preserved capsicum. 3 medium red capsicum (but use whatever colour you have) 1 kg eggplants (the long … [Read more...]
Finally Success Growing Eggplants
I have previously posted about my variable success growing eggplants or aubergines, and how some years I throw them out in disgust at the end of the season after only managing to produce one or two eggplants. Each year I plant them again in the seemingly vain hope that I will get a bumper crop. I've tried them in different positions in the garden, in self-watering pots, in my glasshouse, and sometimes achieved a reasonable harvest. This summer though I hit the jackpot! I was later than usual … [Read more...]
Roasted Eggplant with Curried Yoghurt
This year I tried planting a grafted eggplant and we also had a very warm spring so I have, for the first time ever in the whole time I have been gardening, been able to harvest large 'professional' looking eggplants very early in the season. It is such a delight to be looking for lots of different recipes for using them. This delicious recipe is from Ottolenghi's 'Simple' - thanks Darja for the recipe book :-). 3 large eggplants (~1kg) 100ml canola oil 200g Greek-style yoghurt 2 tsp curry … [Read more...]
Tomato, Eggplant & Ricotta with Zoodles Recipe
This Tomato, Eggplant & Ricotta with Zoodles recipe is a variation on Jamie Oliver's Happiness Pasta recipe in his Everyday Superfood Cookbook and it certainly gave me happiness enjoying it in the sunshine with a glass of red wine. It is a perfect vegetarian meal to wow guests with, especially if you have grown the vegetables and made the ricotta yourself. 2 eggplants (or aubergine) 40g pine nuts 2 cloves garlic 3 shallots 1 bunch fresh basil Olive Oil 800g tomatoes (can use frozen … [Read more...]
Harissa Roasted Eggplant
This Harissa Roasted Eggplant recipe is from Jamie Oliver's Everyday Superfoods cookbook. It is just so amazingly delicious and a wonderful plant-based meal that I just had to share it with you. I'd love to say that I'd grown the eggplants myself but I only managed to grow smaller sized ones this year. I've made lots of recipes with my eggplants but this one uses them as the centrepiece so it is good to use the larger sized ones (but you don't have to). 1 red onion 2 cloves garlic Olive … [Read more...]
Baba Ghanoush Recipe
I have just harvested my first eggplant from the garden so my thoughts are turning to Baba Ghanoush recipes and all the other delicious things I can make using eggplant. I was quite surprised to have an eggplant so early as it hasn't been a good summer and in previous years it has been well into autumn before the harvest began - see my earlier post on growing eggplant or aubergine. Baba Ghanoush (or eggplant dip) is a popular appetiser throughout the Middle East. Over the next few posts I … [Read more...]
Growing Eggplant or Aubergine
I hadn't had much luck growing eggplant previously. It seemed a bit of a lottery as to whether I'd get any eggplants at all: some years I'd get a few and other years none at all. There would nearly always be flowers but few or no fruit. A few years back when I was clearing out the remains of my summer vegetables, I was about to pull the eggplants out in disgust (again) when I noticed that there were some little fruit setting. I left the plants there and was rewarded with quite a good crop of … [Read more...]