Prepping and cooking eggplant couldn’t be easier. Even if you want to “sweat” them as you’ve read about, it’s super simple and only adds thirty passive minutes to your cooking time.
Many people hesitate to cook with eggplant because the sweating part seems mysterious. The first thing you should know is that sweating is unnecessary, but is always an option. Some people taste bitterness when eating eggplant, so they sweat the eggplant to reduce the bitterness (I’ve never tasted any bitterness.) Especially if you use eggplant in stews or casseroles, there is no need to sweat it. Even if you are baking eggplant slices, you can put the eggplant pieces directly into the dish, with no special prep.
Besides possible bitterness, sweating the eggplant can also leave the slices less watery and less mushy after cooking. If you would like to try sweating an eggplant, first wash it and cut off both ends. You can cut slices crosswise or lengthwise. A good thickness is about 1/4 to 1/2 inch.
To salt them, place your colander over a plate, a bowl, or in the sink. Layer the eggplant slices in the colander, salting each layer before adding the next. Leave the salted layers in the colander for 30 minutes. Pat them dry, then place the eggplant slices a few at a time between layers of paper towels, gently squeezing. And that’s it! Your eggplant slices are ready to cook. You can try using eggplant sweated and unsweated to see if you can taste a difference.
One good reason to use eggplant in vegetable casseroles or veggie roasting is that it’s so easy to prep. Eggplant is typically prepared with the peeling left on. If you are baking eggplant slices, you need that peeling to hold the soft vegetable together after it’s cooked.
Cubing or slicing eggplant is very straightforward. Just remove both ends of the eggplant, then to cube it, cut it down the center, then cut each half into cubes of any size. The seeds don’t need to be removed, either! Easy!
I’ve included two basic baked eggplant recipes below. You might also like to try making Easy Traditional Ratatouille with cubed eggplant.
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servings
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- 1 eggplant washed and sliced
- 1/2 cup diced tomatoes or stewed tomatoes or as needed
- Italian breadcrumbs for sprinkling
- dried oregano for sprinkling
- nutritional yeast for sprinkling
- 1 eggplant washed and sliced
- olive oil for brushing
- sliced tomatoes optional
- minced garlic or whole garlic cloves optional
- dried oregano optional
- dried thyme optional
Ingredients
For Quick Baked Eggplant No. 1:
For Quick Baked Eggplant No. 2:
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- Preheat your oven to 400° F.
- In a lightly oiled casserole dish, layer the sliced eggplant.
- Spread diced or stewed tomatoes over the top of the eggplant slices.
- Sprinkle Italian breadcrumbs, dried oregano, and nutritional yeast.
- Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly oil a baking dish.
- In the dish, layer the eggplant slices. Brush with olive oil. At this point, you can bake the eggplant plain for about 20 minutes, or add any of the optional ingredients below, then bake.
- Add any of these optional ingredients: sliced tomatoes, minced garlic, whole garlic cloves, bread crumbs, dried oregano or dried thyme.
- Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.
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