Baked, Split, and Broiled Eggplant
Posted by terrepruitt on May 5, 2012
The past two Thursdays have been pretty cold here and since I don’t teach Nia on Thursdays evenings I have been cooking soup. One Thursday I had it planned so I actually did go to the store after my Nia class on Wednesday to buy the ingredients I needed, but yesterday it was cold so I just decided to use what I had, which was not much. While I think that a bowl or two of soup can easily be a meal, I like to serve something else with it. When I looked in my fridge I saw the eggplant I had bought. Yay! Perfect. I saw a recipe on icancookstuff that sounded interesting. While I do not eat spicy hot food I thought I could use the garlic and the cummin. But it turns out I don’t have any cummin. So I decided to use ginger and turmeric. I have them in powdered form so I got the bottles out of the cupboard and set them on the counter. Then I put the eggplant in the oven to bake it.
The recipe said to bake it at 200 degrees for 45 minutes.** I didn’t think I had 45 minute so I put the temperature up to 300 and left it on for 30 minutes. I didn’t feel that the eggplant was cooked enough so I turned the convection oven on and set the timer for 30 more minutes. I turned it four times because it was getting flat on the pan side.
In the meantime I was cooking my soup. I only had one bunch of baby bok choy, a bunch of kale, and some broccoli. I swore I wasn’t going to put broccoli in a soup again, but . . . I didn’t think the rest would make it. So while I was trying to fake making soup I wasn’t really paying attention to the eggplant. My soup finished before the eggplant.
By the time I finally thought the eggplant was cooked enough to split I split it. I was thinking that I would make one half for me and one half for my husband. I salted it, I put a bit of garlic on it, I put a little bit of parmesan cheese on it. Then I looked over and I saw the onions I had chopped to put on it. And the kale. So I decided to put the onions and kale on one half and hubby and I would just get a half of each half making a whole half.
I put it back in the oven and let it bake for a bit more. Half way through the end of baking portion I saw the ginger and turmeric on the counter. Snap! I forgot to put it on. So I sprinkled a little turmeric on both halves. I put the broiler on for about 10 minutes.
Here is the result.
From the time I thought to cook the eggplant to the time I put it in the oven to finish baking I had thought of three different ways to flavor it. I had originally thought to use garlic, turmeric, and ginger, then I thought of garlic, onions, and kale, then I thought of garlic, and cheese. That really is not a big deal the big deal is that I forgot one each time I thought of the new one. Geez! What I ended up with was ok. I think it needed a little bit more flavor. I will work on that. I don’t even think I tasted the turmeric.
I like cooking eggplant this way because it is much less time-consuming than turn the slices all the time. But I think I like the roasted slices better. But I will continue to experiment with this. I might try slicing it into three pieces next time. Although a baked eggplant is not easy to slice.
**It just dawned on me that the 200 degrees was probably Celsius and not Fahrenheit. So it would actually be about 400 degrees F. Ha!
I can’t wait to try this again!
What do you think of this way of cooking eggplant? What would you put on the eggplant?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
icancookstuff said
Looks tasty – and ya know what? You raised a valid point, I didn’t even realise that cookers come on Fahrenheit, thought it was only Celcius. Very good point.
On another note, you have no idea how many eggplants/aubergines went to waste when I was trying to perfect this recipe! So I can confidently state that you did a marvelous job there, and your experments will only get more interesting 🙂
Did your husband like it, btw?
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terrepruitt said
HI! I DO know better about the celcius and fahrenheit and I know that if you are calling it an aubergine that you are cooking in celcius. And had I not been concentrating on the soup too, I would have realized that 200 degress F was not correct. But I was trying to figure out how to make the vegetables I had on hand work for soup!
That is funny that many aubergines were “wasted” in the creation of this recipe. That is one reason why I don’t make stuff up because I cannot waste food.
My husband DID like it. He said it was fine. I liked it too I just think it needs to be cooked a little more and I need to put more flavor on it. YOUR recipe cooks it perfect — I am sure! And you have great flavor. But me not cooking it at 400 degrees F/200 degrees C is what made not cooked enough for me AND the fact that I don’t like peppers/spicy hot. My husband LOVES hot so next time I do it I might get some peppers from him AND remember the lemon!
Thanks so much for commenting!
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Jill Campana said
I’m not an eggplant fan so I’ll have to pass on any comments, but I must say it looks delicious!!!!!
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terrepruitt said
I know, huh? Even though you don’t like something it can still LOOK good. I see that all the time. I don’t like the ingredients, but it looks good.
I am looking forward to using this method again and just using all different type of flavors. I have seen people make eggplant “pizza” and I have wanted to do that. I think I should try . . . although I never use tomato sauce on my pizza so it won’t be really “pizza-y”.
Thanks for being here, Jill.
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Ed Hwang said
I’m pro-splitting the eggplant first. I think the eggplant will cook more evenly and get a nicer texture. Salting the exposed side.
Maybe top with a tomato and olive tapenade, garlic, some basil and thyme. Top with fresh chives.
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terrepruitt said
Ha. And cons out there!
Oooo. Split it FIRST bake it cut side down? Maybe flip it?
AND YUM (what you said)!!!!!!
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terrepruitt said
Ed – You are so smart! I cooked an eggplant again, but I halved it first! It came out much better! That and cooking it at the proper temperature. THANK YOU!
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Doctor Jonathan said
The effort you used in simply determining which ingredients to use shows the amazing variety of ways we can prepare 1 eggplant. Variety is often the key to helping people eat healthier. You make it look simple!
Thank you for sharing.
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terrepruitt said
Hi, thanks Doctor Jonathan. Roasting veggies is – to me – the easiest way to cook them and since it is so easy it makes it super easy to add different ingredients and flavors to help make them a little different getting the variety that so many like!
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