Now it’s hard to imagine your diet without eggplant, but until the 19th century this plant was not represented at all in Russia. India is considered the birthplace of the “little blue ones", where culture can still grow in the wild, but they were brought to us from Turkey. And the most interesting, perhaps, is that eggplant is a berry. Today, a considerable number of plant varieties are bred, its fruits can already have not only dark purple color, but also light, green and even white.
Chemical composition
The calorie content of raw eggplant is only 24 Kcal, which is a negative indicator.
This means that the body will need to spend more energy on digesting the product than the eggplant itself. For every 100 grams it contains:
- 0.1 g of fat;
- 7.1 g of carbohydrates;
- 1.2 g of protein.
The benefit of the berry is determined not only by diet, but also by a high content of nutrients. Found magnesium, sodium, calcium, iron, potassium, phosphorus and cobalt in eggplant. How many vitamins are in the product? A bit really. The berry contains carotene, vitamins PP, C, B and B2. The main benefit is fiber, which is in large quantities in eggplant. It quickly and permanently saturates the body, without leaving a feeling of heaviness.
Of course, you can’t eat fruits in raw form, but there are many ways to cook eggplant, according to which you can also keep their low calorie content.
Product benefits
In addition to the fact that the “little blue one” is able to positively affect the body simply by eating, it can also be used as a folk remedy for many diseases.
So, the berry peel is able to whiten teeth, its juice can be used as an antiseptic for wounds and burns and in cosmetology as an anti-aging agent. The nicotinic acid present in eggplant contributes to the early cessation of smoking. Regular eating of the fetus itself is an excellent prophylactic against gout, anemia, cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis, and kidney and liver ailments. The product also helps to increase hemoglobin levels, improve blood formation and spleen function.
Low calorie eggplant and their diuretic effect help many to lose weight.
Stewed eggplant
This method of cooking berries is ideal for losing weight, because it is their calorie content that is the lowest. When using only eggplant and water, 100 g of the dish will contain a little more than 40 Kcal. The use of eggplant for the human body is fully preserved, since the product does not completely lose its properties after heat treatment. If you wish, you can use a little vegetable oil to stew the “blue ones”, but this will increase the calorie content of the final dish.
You can chop the fruit for cooking at your own discretion. After chopping it, you should transfer the eggplant into a pan or pan, pour a little water, salt and spices there and let simmer for 0.5-1 hour, depending on the size of the slices. The calorie content of eggplant will be 45 Kcal.
For a change, you can add carrots, onions, sweet peppers and tomatoes to the dish, but the number of calories will be higher.
Caviar "overseas"
You can cook eggplant caviar directly for consumption or for preservation. The calorie content of the final product will be different in this case, since a large amount of oil and vinegar is necessary for clogging.
To eat fresh caviar, it is necessary to fry onions, add carrots to it, after a while eggplant, bell peppers and tomatoes. All products should be sliced ​​equally. At the end of cooking, the dish is salted and peppered. Sugar, herbs and other spices are added to taste. The whole process of extinguishing will take about 40 minutes. Calories in this case will be 50-90 Kcal.
A similar dish of eggplant for harvesting for the winter is prepared in a similar way, but with the addition of a large amount of oil and vinegar. Instead of the latter, you can use another acid. The calorie content of a portion of 100 g will be 150 Kcal.
Baked eggplant
You can prepare this dish in several ways, and the energy value of the final product will depend on them. The classic recipe implies the following steps:
- Wash and slice the eggplants.
- Grease each on both sides with vegetable oil, salt, spices and garlic.
- Put on a baking sheet in 1 layer and put in the oven.
- Bake for 15-25 minutes, sprinkle with fresh herbs before serving.
If desired, “little blue ones” can be started, but their nutritional value will increase and will be already above 65 Kcal, as in the previous version. So, for cooking, it is necessary to cut the berry in half and remove the pulp from both parts, leaving 1 cm on the peel. The resulting forms must be baked for 20 minutes, and from the pulp removed, prepare the filling. To do this, it is crushed, mixed with chopped mushrooms, tomatoes, herbs and garlic and stewed in a pan for 20 minutes. You can add the same low-fat stuffing. Baked eggplant from the oven is filled with filling, filled with cream and sprinkled with grated cheese, and then sent back to the oven for another half hour. The calorie content of the finished dish is 83 kcal.
Fried "little blue"
This method of preparation is the most "difficult" in the dietary sense. How many calories are there in fried eggplant? The energy value with this type of processing is at least 90 Kcal, and this is only if the product is soaked in water for 30 minutes immediately before frying.
This procedure reduces eggplant absorption of oil. If you use batter for frying or supplement the finished dish with other products, then the calorie content may already be about 140 Kcal.
So, you can cook "little blue" as follows:
- Cut eggplant into rings or slices as desired, but not less than 0.5 cm thick.
- Soak the plates, then rinse, salt and fry. If the pan is non-stick, then you can not use vegetable oil.
- In a separate bowl, mix chopped garlic and mayonnaise.
- Grease the prepared eggplant rings with the prepared sauce and cover with a circle of tomato.
- If desired, add a little grated cheese on top and put the finished dish in the oven for baking for 10 minutes. It takes time to melt the cheese.
- When serving, sprinkle with herbs.
Pickled product
You can cook eggplants by simply pickling them. To do this, cut the berry into cubes and pour into boiling salted and acidified water. The product is boiled for 5 minutes, after which the cubes need to drain and cool in a colander. They are mixed with chopped garlic, vegetable oil and spread in jars. The dish is stored for 2 weeks in the refrigerator, and its calorie content is 63 Kcal. If desired, you can add vinegar to the recipe and make a preparation for a longer period.
Directly to the table you can cook the “Korean” version of eggplant. For this, sweet pepper, carrots, eggplant, spices, salt, garlic and necessarily vegetable oil are mixed. The nutritional value will be 109 kcal.
Expert Advice
To reduce the calorie content of eggplant, you should follow some tricks. First of all, you need to choose the right product. Only fruits of medium ripeness with a bright green stalk are suitable for food. In this case, the eggplant itself must be heavy and fleshy.
After slicing the berries, you should sprinkle it with lemon juice or vinegar to stop the browning, and rubbing with salt or soaking the product in salt water will help get rid of the bitterness. Soaking, by the way, helps to reduce the amount of absorbed fat, and therefore reduce the calorie content of the finished eggplant dish. You can reduce the energy value by dipping the berry in egg white before frying it.
Before using this product, it should be remembered that eggplant is contraindicated in people with gastritis, peptic ulcer and pancreatic problems.