4 Eggplant Recipes That Brighten Up Your Diet

Eggplant protects your liver and is an antioxidant. Adding it to your dishes is easier than it seems.

Eating responds to a physiological need. But it also goes further. It is very important how we prepare food and how we combine it. In addition to being healthy for the body, they can also be healthy for the intellect and soul.

Eggplant can be more complicated than it seems when it comes to cooking, but it brings a lot of joy when prepared well. We give your ideas to prepare them with these 4 healthy recipes.

LASAGNA BOWS WITH AUBERGINES AND TOMATOES

Pasta is one of the great allies in the kitchen. Everyone likes it, it’s appetizing and simple to prepare. With lasagna bows with eggplant and tomatoes, rich in lycopene, you have a colorful, nutritious and easy-to-prepare dish.

Ingredients for 4 servings

• 8 plates of fresh lasagna
• 750 g fleshy tomatoes
• 500 g aubergines
• 200 g leek
• 1/2 large onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 bunch of fresh basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• virgin olive oil
• sweet paprika from La Vera
• freshly ground white pepper
• sea salt

Preparation

1. Cook the plates in plenty of boiling water. Drain and spread on a smooth surface.
2. Chop the onion and fry it in oil. Blanch and peel the tomato, remove the seeds and chop it. When the onion is translucent, add it together with the bay leaf and oregano. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 30 minutes over low heat. Remove the bay leaf.
3. Chop the aubergine and chop the white part of the leek. Sauté the leek with the minced garlic for a few minutes and add the aubergine, salt, pepper and a teaspoon of paprika. Once the eggplant is done, let the filling cool in a colander.
4. Put two tablespoons of filling in the center of a sheet, fold one third over the top, then the other and close the ends. Repeat with the rest of the sheets.
5. Place these pasta ribbons in a greased baking dish and coat them down the center with sauce. Heat well in the oven at 190°C and serve with basil.

AUBERGINE AND MUSHROOM PÂTÉ CANAPÉS

You can enrich this recipe by adding a little shiitake mushroom to the mushrooms.

Ingredients for 4 people

• 2 aubergines
• 1 zucchini
• 20 mushrooms
• 3 garlic cloves
• Half a sweet onion
• 125 ml white wine
• Chopped fresh chives for garnish
• Paprika (optional)
• Olive oil
• Salt

Preparation

1. In a frying pan with olive oil, brown the three cloves of garlic cut into thin slices. When they are golden, add the chopped onion and chopped zucchini.
2. Once the onion is poached, add the aubergine cut into very small cubes and the chopped mushrooms, and leave them on the heat for 2 minutes.
3. Stir occasionally and add 350 ml of water and salt. Cook it over low heat and when 80% of the water has been consumed, add the white wine and raise the cooking temperature a little. Let it reduce again, remove it from the heat and let it cool.
4. Whisk all the ingredients until you get a pâté that you can serve on rolls. Garnish with finely chopped fresh chives and, if desired, sprinkled paprika.

SMOKED AUBERGINE TARTARE WITH GREEN CREAM AND FRUITY NOTES

This recipe can be prepared in a relatively short time, which stands out for its eye-catching antioxidant and diuretic properties.

Ingredients for 4

For the green cream of parsley and celery:

• 50 g white onion
• 150 g celery or celeriac
• 20 ml rice milk
• 20 g parsley
• 25 ml virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Freshly ground pepper

For the candied pear in beetroot:

• 150 g raw beetroot
• 100 g conference pear
• 20 ml tamari
• 10 ml mineral water
• Freshly ground pepper
• A pinch of cumin powder

For the smoked eggplant tartare:

• 1 eggplant (skin on)
• 1 garlic clove, unpeeled
• 10 ml virgin olive oil
• 10 ml orange juice
• Salt
• Freshly ground pepper

For the caramelized walnuts:

• 30 g chopped walnuts
• 5 g tamari

Preparation

1. The green cream: cut the onion into julienne strips and anchor in oil until translucent. Peel and chop the celery, sauté it briefly and season with salt and pepper. Add mineral water to cover a third of the volume of the ingredients, cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook for 15 minutes. Blend together with the milk, parsley and oil until creamed. Salt correction.
2. The candied pear: extract the juice from the beetroot (about 50 ml) and add the tamari, water, cumin and pepper. In a saucepan, bring it to the boil along with the pear cut into wedges and then confit over low heat until the liquid reduces by half. Set aside in the juice.
3. The tartare: with tongs, toast the garlic over the fire until the skin is black. Do the same with the eggplant, whole and unpeeled, stirring it occasionally so that it is done on all sides. Once warm, peel it and chop it very finely together with the garlic. Place in a bowl and add the juice, oil, salt and pepper. Mix vigorously until you have a textured cream and set aside.
4. The caramelized walnuts: In a frying pan, toast the walnuts. Remove from heat and caramelize by adding tamari and stirring well.
5. Mounting: Draw a line of celery cream. Using 2 teaspoons, turn the tartare to form 3 quenelles per plate and divide them. On top of each one, a pear wedge and the crunchy touch of some walnuts.

SPIRAL AUBERGINE AND ZUCCHINI TART

Vegetable savoury tarts are a great option to serve an original presentation dish. To make them look good in color, vegetables of different colors are usually used to create contrasts.

If you buy shortcrust pastry, you will have to go with a magnifying glass to know if it has butter and egg in the ingredients. Making your version at home, using only plant-based ingredients, is simpler than you think. And get your hands dirty, in the most relaxing… In this recipe we have used zucchini, aubergines, carrots and red onions, a combination that creates beautiful contrasts of colors and is also very tasty. You can also choose other vegetables according to the season.

Ingredients for 6 people

For the dough:

• 125 g flour
• 125 g whole wheat flour
• 100 ml non-alcoholic beer
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 pinch of salt

For the filling:

• 2 aubergines
• 2 zucchinis
• 4 carrots
• 2 red onions
• 180 g silken tofu
• 300 g vegan white cheese
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• Salt and pepper

Preparation

How to make the dough without butter or egg:

1. Place the flours in a bowl. You can use just whole wheat flour or mix it with another type of flour.
2. Add the beer, oil and salt. The fat, better be a mild olive oil.
3. Knead into a ball that does not stick and store in the fridge.
4. Roll out the dough with the rolling pin to get a disc slightly larger than the mold and line it with it.

Fill and assemble the cake:

1. Cut the 4 vegetables into very thin slices of similar size.
2. Roll a carrot, put it in the center of the dough and roll the others around, alternately, to the edge.
3. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
4. Shred the tofu with the vegan cheese and oregano.
5. Season the previous mixture with salt and pepper and pour it over the vegetable spiral, by the spoonful.
6. Bake the tart for an hour, until the pastry is golden brown.
7. Allow to cool, unmold and serve.

A few tricks:

1. Aubergines without bitterness. If you add aubergines to your dishes, after cutting them, layer them with salt in a colander and leave them for about 30 minutes to lose their bitterness. They are then rinsed and dried.
2. The touch of cheese. The slices bind very well with a vegan cheese between them.
3. Once the cake is composed, you can brush the dough with soy milk to make it shine more.