This oven roasted eggplant with balsamic vinegar is my favourite easy option to put together eggplant. It’s hands-off, flavorful, and versatile. You possibly can serve the eggplant as a aspect dish, add it to grain bowls or salads, or fold it into your favourite pasta dish. In case you’re a bit intimidated by cooking eggplant, that is the starter recipe for you!
Does cooking eggplant scare you a bit?
In that case, you’re not the one one. Folks inform me on a regular basis that they’re intimidated by the method of cooking this nightshade, and I can perceive why.
If issues go awry, cooked eggplant can change into too oily or too dry. It could burn too shortly or refuse to brown whenever you need it to brown. Until the vegetable is backyard contemporary, it might probably have some underlying bitterness.
Typically probably the most difficult elements are additionally probably the most rewarding. I actually love eggplant, so I’ve developed some recipes over time that I now take into account to be foolproof.
This recipe for oven roasted eggplant cubes is considered one of them. It’s my easiest, go-to eggplant recipe, and I wish to share it with you in the present day.
A stable aspect dish
A enjoyable phenomenon that occurs periodically inside my diet follow is that a number of shoppers will articulate the identical query to me across the identical time.
Whether or not that is seasonal in nature, associated to diet within the information, or simply some an expression of collective power, I’m unsure.
What it means is that my shoppers get me enthusiastic about one thing, and I often mull it over till I can provide them a useful reply.
Recently, a whole lot of shoppers have been speaking with me about consuming extra greens—particularly vegetable aspect dishes.
I spend a whole lot of time teaching the parents I work with on macronutrient steadiness, or the significance of getting complicated carbs, protein, and healthful fats represented on every plate. This can be a cornerstone of my diet philosophy, and it’s the precept that my cookbook Energy Plates is devoted to.
Nevertheless, vegetables and fruit are additionally an important a part of balanced, nutritious meals.
When life is busy, it may be exhausting to know the way to incorporate greens adequately. All of us are inclined to have a vegetable aspect dish or two that we lean on closely. For me, it’s a easy inexperienced salad or steamed broccoli with sauce.
There’s nothing improper with having a dependable standby. However selection is necessary, too, each for the sake of diet standing and in addition for avoiding boredom.
The query turns into, how can we get a greater variety of greens when merely deciding what’s for dinner already looks like a whole lot of work?
The reply—or my reply, anyway—is to have a brief listing of go-to vegetable sides that’s different, but not overly bold.
This roasted eggplant is at all times on that listing.
Eggplant 101
Just a few fundamental enjoyable and fascinating details about eggplant.
Eggplant diet
Eggplants belong to the nightshade household, which additionally consists of tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers.
Eggplant is a nutrient dense meals. It’s excessive in fiber and in addition a great supply of folate and potassium.
What’s extra, the pigments that give eggplants their stunning array of purple shades are highly effective antioxidants referred to as anthocyanins.
Anthocyanins are related to anti-inflammatory results, and so they may be positively related to cardiac well being.
You might be shocked to learn this, as nightshades are generally stated to trigger irritation. What’s the reality?
As with so many diet issues, that is nuanced.
Nightshades comprise compounds referred to as alkaloids. Consuming very giant quantities of alkaloids could exacerbate current irritation amongst individuals who have current pro-inflammatory circumstances, resembling arthritis.
Nevertheless, over time, analysis has continued to counsel that consuming nightshades as a part of a balanced weight-reduction plan isn’t truly a reason behind irritation.
And never all individuals who have pro-inflammatory circumstances can have an antagonistic response to nightshades. For most folk, these fruits and veggies provide extra well being advantages than they do dangers.
I at all times advise my shoppers to hearken to their our bodies. If a shopper with arthritis or an autoimmune situation feels noticeably worse with a whole lot of nightshade consumption, then we work to scale back or keep away from consumption of the nightshade household.
In any other case, all nightshades, eggplants included, is usually a nourishing and scrumptious a part of any plant-centric weight-reduction plan.
Cooking with eggplant
A number of the worry issue round cooking with eggplant is that many recipes name for salting the vegetable earlier than cooking it.
It’s not a tough step. However it’s an further step.
The rationale behind salting eggplant is that salting will scale back the vegetable’s tendency to have some pure bitterness.
Salting doubtless isn’t wanted when eggplant could be very contemporary and completely mature. However it’s useful the remainder of the time.
I additionally discover that salting tenderizes eggplant, making it extra palatable. Most of the time, I salt eggplant earlier than utilizing it in my recipes.
For this oven roasted eggplant, nevertheless, I skip the salting. Excessive temperature cooking reduces the necessity for eggplant to be completely tender. In actual fact, a bit crispiness is a part of the intention right here.
From a taste perspective, candy and tart balsamic vinegar helps to offset any of the eggplant’s pure bitterness, if any bitterness is there within the first place.
Salting apart, I discover that eggplant is definitely a really forgiving and versatile vegetable to work with. It may be fried, sautéed, stewed, baked, or roasted. It could change into salty, oven-baked eggplant “bacon” or a pleasant pasta sauce.
The probabilities are many.
Forms of eggplant
It’s price saying one thing about completely different kinds of eggplant.
Most frequently, I purchase glove, also called American, eggplant. That is the kind of eggplant that you simply’ll typically see in grocery shops within the US.
It tends to be on the bigger aspect, it has a slimmer prime and wider backside (pear-shaped, in different phrases), and it has a darkish, shiny, purple black pores and skin
Italian eggplants look just like globe eggplants, however they’re smaller throughout. Japanese and Chinese language eggplants are lengthy and skinny in diameter; the previous is a deeper purple, whereas the latter is often mild purple. All three of those varieties are particularly tender and creamy when cooked.
There are extra eggplant varieties, together with the petite, stripey fairy story eggplant, almost spherical Indian eggplant, and white eggplant.
What kind of eggplant ought to I exploit for this recipe?
For this roasted eggplant, I like to recommend utilizing globe, Italian, graffiti, Chinese language, or Japanese eggplants. You’ll see globe eggplant in my pictures.
Fairy story eggplant and Indian eggplants will all work as nicely. You’ll merely want a bunch of them so as to add as much as the approximate pound of eggplant that’s referred to as for.
Easy seasonings
This roasted eggplant recipe requires minimal flavoring. There’s one predominant taste, which is balsamic vinegar.
If any ingredient is well-equipped to do some heavy lifting in a recipe, it’s balsamic! Candy, tart, and distinctive, a pair tablespoons (or an enormous drizzle) of balsamic can instantly add a whole lot of character to roasted greens, salads, or pasta dishes.
I often maintain a couple of sorts of balsamic at dwelling. Extreme? Perhaps, however all of them do various things.
I maintain cheap balsamic available for mixing into dressings. One of these balsamic is often on the skinny aspect.
There’s additionally at all times a bottle of extra syrupy Balsamic Vinegar of Modena in my pantry or on my counter. I exploit this for drizzling on prime of pasta, braised lentils on toast, and so forth.
Lastly, I prefer to maintain some white balsamic round, too. One of these balsamic has a barely extra mellow profile than crimson balsamic. I exploit it at any time when I need the flavour of balsamic with out an excessive amount of depth.
For the roasted eggplant, white balsamic is definitely my first selection. Once I don’t have that, I exploit crimson balsamic as a substitute.
There’s no want to tug out the flowery, unctuous balsamic for this recipe, except you’d prefer to. A extra budget-friendly, on a regular basis selection is ok.
The right way to make oven roasted eggplant
Once more, one of many nicest issues about this recipe is that it’s easy. You don’t need to salt the eggplant previous to roasting, and the ingredient listing is brief.
Listed here are the steps.
Step 1: Preheat your oven
I discover that 400°F / 200°C is the correct temperature for this roasted eggplant recipe. When the oven is hotter, the eggplant can fry and burn earlier than it actually turns into tender.
When the oven is cooler, the eggplant could not develop these crispy edges and bits that give it good taste.
400°F is excellent.
Step 2: Trim and dice your eggplant
I like to chop my eggplant into 3/4-1 inch cubes (2-2.5cm). I often minimize my eggplant crosswise into disks, then minimize these disks into cubes.
One giant, globe eggplant will yield a couple of pound of cubes after preparation.
Subsequent, place these cubes onto a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle them with olive oil, mud them generously with salt, and blend the cubes to distribute the oil.
Step 3: Roast
Switch the eggplant to the oven and roast it for quarter-hour, or till among the edges are beginning to crisp and switch golden.
It’s time so as to add seasoning. Combine the eggplant on the baking sheet, then drizzle it with the vinegar. In case you’d like so as to add a clove or two of minced garlic, now’s the time.
Return the eggplant to the oven. Roast for one more 15-20 minutes, or till the eggplant is tender and caramelizing.
Earlier than you serve the eggplant, you may style it and add a bit extra salt, vinegar, or some crushed crimson pepper flakes, as you want.
Step 4: Serve or retailer
Serve the eggplant now, or retailer it in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 4 days.
It’s straightforward to meal prep the eggplant, in a single batch or perhaps a double batch, then get pleasure from it for some lunches and dinners within the days that observe.
The Vegan Week
Embrace the enjoyment of consuming do-it-yourself meals daily with the hearty and healthful recipes in The Vegan Week.
Whether or not you might have three, two, and even only one hour of time to spare, The Vegan Week will present you the way to batch cook dinner different, colourful, and comforting dishes over the weekend.
Serving solutions
I feel it’s a lot scrumptious to toss the roasted eggplant cubes with some contemporary basil and serve them as an accompaniment to any easy complete grain + protein combo.
Eggplant’s peak season is late summer time and early fall. So listed here are some seasonal grain pairing solutions for you:
For the protein, you might keep on model and serve the eggplant with baked balsamic tofu cubes. Chickpea scramble, tempeh nuggets, or balsamic mustard baked tempeh would even be nice.
There are such a lot of huge, meal-sized salads that might be even higher with a scoop of the roasted eggplant cubes combined in. I’m pondering of tahini mint kale salad and tofu feta kale salad specifically.
And my favourite factor to do with the eggplant cubes is, after all, to combine them into some cozy vegan pasta dish or one other.
For instance:
Anyway, I’m certain you’ll determine a lot of your personal engaging concepts. The principle factor is to benefit from the eggplant! Right here’s the recipe.
Oven Roasted Eggplant Cubes with Balsamic Vinegar
Writer –
Yields: 4 servings
- 1 giant giant, globe eggplant, prime and backside trimmed, minimize into 1-inch / 2.5cm cubes
- 2 tablespoons avocado or olive oil
- kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons white or crimson balsamic vinegar
- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced (elective)
- crushed crimson pepper flakes (elective)
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Preheat your oven to 400°F. Place the eggplant onto a parchment lined or nonstick rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle it with the oil and sprinkle it generously with salt.
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Roast the eggplant for quarter-hour, or till among the edges are beginning to crisp and switch golden. Drizzle the eggplant with the vinegar. Add the minced garlic, if utilizing. Stir the eggplant nicely. Return the eggplant to the oven.
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Roast the eggplant for one more 15-20 minutes, or till the it is tender and caramelizing. Style the eggplant and modify salt and vinegar to style. Add a pinch or two of crushed crimson pepper flakes for warmth, if desired.
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Serve the eggplant straight away, or retailer it in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 4 days.
That’s a whole lot of pleasure and enthusiasm over a quite simple vegetable aspect, I do know.
However in busy or tough instances it looks like such a win when nourishing elements handle to seek out their manner constantly to our plates, proper?
Prompted by my pretty shoppers and their questions, I’ll share extra of my favourite, straightforward vegetable sides this fall and winter.
For now,
xo
