The aubergines are very fond of housewives for their unpretentiousness and ease of cooking. Due to the fact that the vegetable has a neutral taste, it goes well with meat, suitable as an ingredient for stews, hodgepodge and other dishes. It can also be pickled and
prepared for the winter. Today in our article we will look at how to
bake eggplant. You must admit that such a cooking method is much more useful than frying in a large amount of oil, because the “little blue ones” absorb fat like a sponge, and the dish becomes appetizing, but extremely high-calorie. To avoid this, it is best to cook the vegetable in the oven.
Baked eggplant with minced meat: we prepare "boats" with filling and cheese crust
This dish can also be served at the festive table, because it’s not just vegetables cut into pieces, but “boats” inside of which delicious minced meat is hidden, moreover, there will be a ruddy cheese crust on top - no one can resist. For the dish you will need:
- 4 medium-sized eggplants - it is best to take vegetables of elongated shape and large diameter;
- 400 gr. any minced meat - from pork, beef or chicken;
- 1 pc. tomatoes and onions, as well as a clove of garlic;
- 200 gr. Parmesan or other hard cheese;
- little by little parsley and dill, salt with pepper and mayonnaise.
In this case, baking eggplant is very simple: first prepare the vegetables: wash, cut exactly in half, salt and put in a bowl - they should stand for a while and give juice. After 20 minutes, the juice should be drained, rinse the vegetables and cut the pulp with a spoon. You should get "boats" with walls 1 cm thick. The pulp needs to be cut into cubes. Put the billet on a baking sheet, grease the eggplant with oil and bake for 15 minutes (the oven should be heated to 230 degrees). During this time, prepare the filling: remove the skin from the tomatoes, for this they need to be rinsed with boiling water, so the skin will be removed very simply, and after the pulp should be cut into cubes. Chop onion, garlic and herbs finely. Fry the vegetables in a pan - first, the pulp of eggplant, then add onion and garlic to them, salt, pepper and put in a bowl. After that, you need to do the same with minced meat. When the meat is ready, combine it with fried vegetables - you get the filling. Then remove the semi-finished "boats" from the oven, fill them with a mixture of minced meat and vegetables, generously sprinkle with chopped Parmesan and send them to the oven for half an hour. By the way, you can bake eggplant without meat - then you get a vegetarian dish. You can put fried bell pepper and zucchini in the filling. Then the dish will turn out not only completely vegetable, but also low-calorie. That's just the cheese in this case you need to take as little as possible.
Whole baked eggplant
In most dishes, we are used to adding vegetables, cut into pieces or plates, but in this recipe it is proposed to cook whole eggplants, and serve with sauce of mayonnaise (sour cream) and garlic, they can also be added to salads, previously cut into pieces, or used in as a side dish. Take the required number of eggplant, wash, cut the green top. To make the baked vegetable better, make 2-3 punctures with a fork on one side. Put them on a wire rack, place a baking sheet under it. Eggplant should be baked at maximum temperature for 40 minutes. Eggplants are very tasty with meat, so if you are looking for a delicious and original side dish for the second, so cooked eggplant will be the right choice.