Grilled Eggplant Recipe with Sumac, Capers, and Mint - Feed Me Phoebe (2024)
(updated September 24, 2022) // by Phoebe Lapine // 18 comments
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When I got back from Spain last week, all I wanted to eat were vegetables.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I couldn’t get enough of Basque cooking. And for the most part, it was fairly healthy. But I’m pretty sure everyone’s idea of standard vegetable consumption was one or two peppers off of a shared plate of pimientos dipadròn (think shisito peppers…fried).
I also had a good amount of recipe development for Food & Wine on my plate, including savory crepes, 10 ways. This isn’t ordinarily the most veggie-friendly of food vehicles. But after 10 days of fromage and jambon, I couldn’t face eating another 10 plates of the stuff sandwiched inside of a pancake.
So I decided to just do the kind of cooking that I wanted to do, with the veggies that spoke to me at the market, and worry about how they would become part of a crepe recipe later. In case you were wondering, this tuna salad tasted excellent as part of a crepe – kind of a entrée size play on a blini.
One of my favorite resulting combinations was this grilled eggplant recipe, seasoned with sumac, drizzled with bright lemon, capers, and mint, and stacked on top of the buckwheat pancake with a little cloud of mache to seal the deal. You can look for that recipe in the coming months on F&W’s website. But for now, you can try the grilled eggplant solo as a simple summer side dish, or as a creative filling for whatever type of sandwich your culinary whims call to you.
Heat a charcoal grill or indoor grill pan to high.
Remove the top and bottom of the eggplant and stand it up on a cutting board. Slice the eggplant length-wise and thin as you can.
In a small mixing bowl, combine the sumac and olive oil. Brush each piece of eggplant on both sides.
Grill the eggplant on both sides, rotating 90 degrees halfway through to get a nice crosshatch, until soft and charred, about 2 minutes per side.
Arrange the grilled eggplant on a platter. Add the lemon juice, mint, capers, and salt to the remaining olive oil mixture and stir to combine. Drizzle the eggplant with the caper mixture. Serve immediately or at room temperature.
Nutrition
Serving: 4g
If you make this, tag @phoebelapine and #feedmephoebe – I’d love to see it!
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Nice! Great sauce. YAY for SummerFest! LL P.S. Pinned
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Sunny @ andloveittoosays
Phoebe,
These look amazing! We have another batch of egg plant coming this weekend…I do believe I will give these a try. xoxo
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Jeanettesays
I could eat this all summer long Phoebe – lovin that sauce!
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Frankiesays
Those perfect hashtag marks! Those eggplants are tweet-ready!
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Stephsays
mmm I love sumac and eggplant, but never thought to combine them!
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Denisesays
Grilling eggplant is one of my favorite ways of cooking with it, the smoky taste is really perfect. Sumac just makes it even better – I sprinkle if on so many different dishes as well as in salad dressings. Cannot wait to see your crepe piece. We love a good savory crepe.
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Christinesays
Love eggplant like this.
And a comment about your text colors. It is really, really hard for aging eyes to read. I had to strain to see what you wrote, and even more so with the colors of the replies.
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Phoebe Lapinesays
Thanks for letting me know Christine. I’ve gotten that complaint before and already bumped the color up slightly. Will have to readdress this. Hope you’ll still visit! If you turn the brightness up or down on your screen, that might help for now.
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Canal Cooksays
Looks beautiful. I’m also in a veggie phase after coming back from a week of eating pasta and little else.
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Phoebe Lapinesays
I hear you! Ate way too much white food this weekend. Back to the eggplant…
Eggplant is about 80 to 90 percent water, so when you put them in the oven they need space to evaporate all that water and caramelize properly," says Covarrubias. Give them a toss halfway through the cooking process to make sure they're cooked evenly, too.
Steaming is, in general, the way to retain the most nutrients in a vegetable. But it's boring, and by the very act of eating a vegetable, you're eating healthy (so long a it's not a French Fry or Awesome Blossom). Grilling is a nice way to eat an eggplant. As is sauteeing in a ratatouille.
Soak eggplant slices or cubes in milk for about 30 minutes before cooking. The milk not only tempers the bitterness, but it actually makes for eggplant that is extra creamy, since the vegetable acts like a sponge and soaks up a good amount of milk in its flesh.
Depending on the recipe, you might want to slice and salt globe eggplant slices before cooking them in order to draw out some of the water and keep them from turning to mush. In On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee writes that because eggplants are filled with tiny air pockets, they function like sponges.
The oil still left in the eggplant tissues contributes to the soft, buttery texture that's so appealing. Oil also carries the essence of added herbs and spices, so that eggplant dishes can become rich with the aromas and heady flavors of onions, peppers, anchovies, parsley, garlic, and lemon juice.
Cut off the stem and nearby areas before cooking. The stem and area near the stem tend to be where bitter compounds collect. Slice or chop the eggplant and sprinkle the pieces with salt. Allow them to sit for about 30 minutes, then pat dry before cooking.
You mentioned that once they turned out tough and chewy: then they were not cooked fully through. Vegetables are not like meat, which turn rubbery when overcooked. They turn soft rather. Watch out for the opposite as well: Eggplants when cooked for a long time may turn mushy.
"I have rarely found an eggplant that is so bitter that it needs salting. I just cut it up, toss the pieces with olive oil, and start cooking." she says. "The claim is reminiscent of a time when eggplants were more bitter. Today, eggplants are bred not to have that kind of bitterness," Jenkins explains.
Why do you soak eggplant in water and vinegar? Soaking eggplant in water and vinegar helps remove some of the vegetable's natural bitterness. This step also helps preserve some of the skin's color so it stays a vibrant purple even after cooking.
Most people prefer to rinse their eggplant after salting it, but you'll be fine without this extra step. Instead, you can simply blot excess salt with a paper towel or bypass this step entirely for a super well-seasoned eggplant.
As the plants grow, they need an even moisture supply. They do well with a drip irrigation system, but many watering methods work. When the first blossoms appear, spray the plants with a seaweed extract with one teaspoon of Epsom salts dissolved per gallon. The solution improves fruit set.
Older recipes call for salting eggplant to draw out the bitter juices, but today's eggplants are less bitter (unless very large), so salting is largely unnecessary. It will, however, help the spongy flesh absorb less oil and crisp up like a dream.
This process takes time, as the salt is drawing moisture out of the eggplant. You'll need 30 minutes at the minimum, but you can leave them up to an hour and a half. Watch for moisture beading up on the eggplant, which is what you want. Rinse the salt off.
Older recipes call for salting eggplant to draw out the bitter juices, but today's eggplants are less bitter (unless very large), so salting is largely unnecessary. It will, however, help the spongy flesh absorb less oil and crisp up like a dream.
Introduction: My name is Nicola Considine CPA, I am a determined, witty, powerful, brainy, open, smiling, proud person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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