I love eggplant and discovered several years ago that the only way to eat eggplant is to fry it, and since eggplant is like a sponge, it drinks up all the oil in the pan and wants more, so needless to say it's kinda fatty and greasy. I gave up on it completely until I got the idea in my head that if I broil it, it might not be so bad. People grill veggies, so why not eggplant? So I bought two small ones and the rest is history. Here's my recipe:
Broiled Eggplant
2 small to medium sized FIRM eggplants
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp. Chili flakes
Salt
Cut the stem side of the eggplant and cut a little bit off the bottom, then with a potato peeler, peel the eggplant. Now you can either cut it into 1/2 inch rounds or cut it on the diagonal, but either way the thickness should be 1/2 inch. Place on a small cookie sheet pan, then fire up your broiler. Add to olive oil, the garlic powder and chili flakes and lightly brush on one side of the eggplant and broil until brown on one side. Flip eggplant over and repeat by lightly brushing the other side and broil until brown. Lightly salt. I usually check my eggplant several times because I've forgotten them once and let them burn to a crisp. After I opened all the windows in the house to let the smoke out and silence the smoke alarms, I had to throw them away because crispy charred eggplant is not good eats!
These are great eaten as a snack or... with the following:
Chicken Salad
1 cooked, deboned chicken breast, chopped fine
1 1/2 tablespoons of light or reduced fat mayonnaise
1 medium sized stalk of celery, chopped into small pieces
dash of Jamaican style curry powder (or curry powder of your choice)
dash of pepper
Mix together all ingredients, then with a Ninja, Magic Bullet or Immersion blender, blend until pureed or chunky if you prefer. It's done!
One day I was looking for something to have for lunch and I didn't want to eat just plain chicken salad so I remembered the eggplant and placed about a teaspoon or chicken salad on each eggplant slice and folded it over so it looks like a mini taco. I made about 6 of these for myself and they were incredibly delicioso!! And OMG, it's even low carb! Imagine that!
A la prossima!
Sounds delicious. I've been eating a lot of chicken salad since surgery, and will add this into my rotation.
ReplyDeleteAnother way we like chicken salad around here is curry powder, a handful of golden raisins and slivered almonds, and a few chunks of an apple.
I like the addition of apple Taylor. I think next time I make it I'll add some apple and maybe a few raisins. Thank you for your comment!
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