How to Grill and Serve Eggplant

This is a great summer dish.When you grill meat, always remember to trow in some veggies too. Eggplant is a great choice. Let me show you how to prepare eggplant for grilling and how to serve it. Below are two different recipes, both of them produce great look and taste.

Grilled Eggplant with Red Onion, Mint and Walnut

You need for 6-8 people:

3 medium eggplants, sliced length-wise with slicer or mandoline
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt and black pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 large red onion, sliced
2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
3 tablespoons walnut, coarsely chopped

Steps:

Place eggplant slices on sheets of paper towel, salt them on both sides and cover with another layer of paper towel. Put large baking sheet over it, and add something heavy on top of everything to apply pressure on eggplant slices. Let it stay that way for 30 minutes. Salt and pressure will squeeze out liquid and thus take out bitterness from eggplant. Now wash eggplant with water, rinse and dry it with paper towel.

In the meantime, heat the grill.

Brush eggplant with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Grill eggplant slices for few minutes on both sides. They should get nice grill marks. Then place them on large dish as on the picture above.

Make the dressing with the rest of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and black pepper. Place onion rings over eggplant and drizzle the dressing over it. Sprinkle walnut and fresh mint. Serve it warm.

Grilled Eggplant Slices with Garlic Dressing

To make second version of grilled eggplant, slice it cross-wise. Repeat the same preparation and grilling method as in the first recipe.

For dressing use 1/4 cup olive oil, juice of 1/2 lemon, minced 1 clove of garlic, chopped 3 leaves of fresh basil, 1 tablespoon of fresh chives, salt and black pepper to taste. When the eggplant slices are grilled, drizzle them with the garlic dressing.


Bellow is an eggplant with very peculiar shape. Sometimes you find them that way.

Eggplant & Garlic – Heaven in Your Mouth

Now I know for sure a marriage of eggplant and garlic makes one of the best tastes ever. Simply, this summer I have fallen in love with that flavor. I don’t know if it is because I miss so badly our vacation in Greece, so I am trying to make it up in my kitchen, or if it is something else... Anyways, the last few days in my home you could mostly smell that powerful aroma. All week long I was making dishes from the great Greek cuisine. I found two nice recipes that really support my theory of the fabulous eggplant & garlic combo. Hope you will enjoy them too.

I went through my pictures from our last visit to Greece and I picked up few of them to post here too.

Eggplant with Mozzarella

 

You need:

2 eggplants, sliced
2 tomatoes, sliced
250g (9 oz) mozzarella cheese
4 cloves garlic, mashed
Grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Fresh basil leaves
Olive oil for frying

Steps:

1. Turn the oven to 220C (425F).
2. Wash and slice eggplants, add salt and leave for about 20 minutes to reduce the bitterness. Use paper towels to drain the liquid from eggplant. Rinse eggplant under cold water and dry by using paper towels.
3. Fry them in olive oil until lightly golden brown. Put fried eggplant slices on paper to drain off oil.
4. Mash garlic and add salt and pepper.
5. Slice tomato and mozzarella cheese.
6. Wash basil leaves.
7. In a baking pan make these layers:

• slice of fried eggplant
• mozzarella cheese slice
• coated garlic
• tomato slice
• mozzarella cheese slice
• salt and black pepper
• basil leaves
• finish with the eggplant.

Put more layers if you want. Once created, put the eggplant in the oven and bake just until cheese is melted, about 5 to 8 min.

Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and fresh basil leaves.

Roasted Eggplant and Red Pepper

 You need:

• 1 large eggplant, sliced and cut in 1-inch strips
• 1 large onion, quartered with the separated layers
• 2 red peppers, cut in 1-inch strips
• 3 cloves of garlic, mashed
• Olive oil
• 1 Tbs. of lemon juice
• 1/2 cup of crumbled feta cheese
• Salt and pepper

Steps:

1. Cut the vegetables.
2. Preheat the oven to 230C (450F).
3. Sprinkle eggplant, red peppers and onion with olive oil and seasoning and roast until done, about 30 minutes. Let them cool.
4. Transfer roasted vegetable to the bowl and toss with lemon juice, mashed garlic and feta cheese.
5. Serve it with toasted French bread.

Americans, that's a real Gyro!

My favorite city - Thessaloniki

Olive fields

Rebuilt village, Sithonia

Time to rest, Nikiti, Sithonia

Amazing beech, Sithonia

White oleanders by the road

Nothing smells better than pine trees

Gorgeous nature

Little garden

View from the cozy restaurant