Eggplant Gratin With Feta Cheese - Healthy Eggplant Gratin Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the healthiest way to eat eggplant? ›

What are the healthiest cooking methods for eggplant? The healthiest cooking methods for eggplant include baking, grilling, or roasting. These methods require minimal added fats and help retain the vegetable's nutrients.

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.

The other trick for perfect roasted eggplant? Cooking it at a high temperature (425 F / 218 C) for enough time (25-30 minutes) to give it a browned exterior and tender interior. Just look at those cubed purple beauties! & Super snack-able!

A useful tip to prevent sogginess and greasiness is to salt sliced or diced eggplant and let it sit for an hour. This helps to draw out moisture. Next, rinse and drain any liquid from the sliced eggplant, then pat dry before cooking. This will further soften the eggplant preventing it from soaking up fat while cooking.

Other studies have demonstrated that eggplants may have a protective effect on the heart. In one study , animals were fed raw or grilled eggplant for 30 days. Both types improved heart function and reduced heart attack severity.

Fiber in eggplant and other plants can help people control weight, prevent overweight and obesity. A person following a high-fiber diet will eat less of other foods because fiber makes people feel fuller for longer. Eggplants are high in fiber and low in calories - they can contribute to a healthy, low-calorie diet.

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.

CHILLING: Arrange eggplant slices on a plate and put it in the freezer for about 4 hours. When the slices thaw, press out a lot of the water with the palm of your hand, releasing most of the bitterness. The eggplant will fry as if it had been salted, though the freezing will make the flesh fall apart a bit more.

Eggplants can have the alkaloid solanine, which can give it a bitter taste. “Another compound possibly contributing to eggplant's bitterness is anthocyanin, which is a phytochemical that gives eggplant its pretty purple hue and can act like an antioxidant when we consume it,” says Nichole Dandrea-Russert, MS, RDN.

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.

What is the best way to prepare eggplant? ›

Eggplants can be grilled, steamed, braised, stir-fried, deep-fried and roasted. For a smoky flavour, turn whole eggplants over an open flame on the barbecue or stovetop until the skin is charred, then scoop out the flesh. Choose eggplants with smooth and shiny skin that is even across the surface.

When it's cooked, “it should turn fully tender, all the flesh should be somewhat custardy. If you have to, hammer it a bit, knock it around, let it start to collapse.” When you're roasting eggplant, like in YuChen's recipe, “make sure you give them enough space so they can cook evenly,” she says.

An eggplant's nutritional value is that it's low-carb, low-calorie, and a good fiber source. The potential health benefits of eggplants are rooted in their antioxidant content, heart disease risk protection, and more.

Wondering whether you can eat eggplant raw? It's OK in small quantities, but it's better if eggplant is cooked.

However, eggplants also contain a substance, solanine, which is used to defend themselves against fungi and insects. It is precisely on this substance that the bitter taste of the eggplants depends. To eliminate it, the most common methods are soaking in water and vinegar and the salt technique.

Artichokes, onions, and eggplant fare very well, only losing 5-30% of their antioxidants. The best vegetable to boil? Asparagus. If cooked perfectly, its antioxidant capabilities actually increase, so monitor its time-to-tenderness in hot water.

That's too bad, because the skin of purple eggplants contains its most valuable nutrient, a powerful antioxidant called nasunin, one of a type of flavonoid called anthocyanins present in many fruits and vegetables with red, blue and purple hues (berries, beets and red cabbage, to name a few).