Baked Crispy Eggplant Slices | Walking on Sunshine Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Do you have to salt eggplant before baking? ›

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.

Eggplant is about 80 to 90 percent water, so when you put them in the oven they need space to evaporate all that water and caramelize properly," says Covarrubias. Give them a toss halfway through the cooking process to make sure they're cooked evenly, too.

While the skin of a small young eggplant is edible, the skin becomes bitter on larger or older eggplants and should be peeled. When in doubt, the answer to, "Do you peel eggplant before cooking?" is yes, peel it. Use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to remove the skin.

Not cooking it in enough fat.

You need to be a little more generous in order for there to be enough oil on the outside of the eggplant to cook properly.

Salting: Salting removes excess liquid and some of the bitterness. Today's eggplants are bred for mildness, though, so it's not as important as it used to be (if you are frying eggplant, salting will ensure a creamy texture and rich flavor). This method works for eggplant slices, cubes, or planks.

Carefully rinse each piece of eggplant under cold water, making sure you remove all the salt. Drain. Step 3: Transfer the rinsed eggplant pieces, a few at a time, to a clean work surface and pat dry with paper towel.

Salt and drain the eggplant slices: Salt the eggplant slices and let them sit for about 30 minutes. This will draw out excess moisture and make the eggplant less soggy when fried.

Eggplant roasting problems!

The key to fix this is simple: cut into large pieces – smaller pieces cook too quickly and turn into mush before the outside has a chance to caramelise; and. roast at a high temperature so the surface gets “sealed” and holds in the juice inside.

The oil still left in the eggplant tissues contributes to the soft, buttery texture that's so appealing. Oil also carries the essence of added herbs and spices, so that eggplant dishes can become rich with the aromas and heady flavors of onions, peppers, anchovies, parsley, garlic, and lemon juice.

When looking at the exterior of the eggplant, check the stem and cap. Both should be green and fresh-looking. If they are starting to fade in color, that's an indicator that the vegetable may be spoiling. You'll also want to toss the eggplant if there is any mold on the stem or cap.

How to prepare eggplant before baking? ›

Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt, garlic powder, and black pepper. Flip and repeat the olive oil, salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Roast the eggplant slices in the oven for about 30-35 minutes, until soft and golden.

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.

This is really about water content, not flavor. Eggplant contains a lot of water, and there can be plenty left after baking or grilling. If you then make a mashed/pureed spread like this, that water could make it a lot more liquid than you want.

One of the secrets to cooking tender-but-never-mushy eggplant is salt. First, Stilo cuts her eggplant into the desired shape (rounds, cubes, planks, etc.), and then sprinkles the eggplant evenly with a generous amount of salt.

I eschew the typical salting step and simply stir-fry the eggplant — Chinese eggplant are more tender and slender than the dark-purple-skinned Italian variety — until lightly charred on the outside and cooked to a firm custard consistency inside (trust me, it gets just as soft as if you had salted it).

The two major components of an eggplant are water and air, so it makes sense to get rid of that water when you want to get a firmer, less soggy texture. I sprinkle a generous amount of salt over sliced eggplant and let it sit in a bowl for 45 minutes.

Salting eggplant is often explained on two points: The first point contends that eggplants can be quite bitter, and salting helps cut the bitterness. (No, salt doesn't draw out bitterness. It just helps hide it.) Second, salting eggplants reduces the sponginess and leaves you with a creamy, silky texture.