Simple (and Fancy!) Eggplant Dip

Inspired by this Eggplant “Caviar” Recipe, I’ve upped the herbs and vinegar and added cherry tomatoes to make this warming (roasted eggplant) and, at the same time, refreshing (fresh herbs and tomato) dip. Serve it with toasted bread or crackers. If you go with a few seedy Norwegian Crispbread Crackers (because, they pack the protein), I’d say it counts as a meal.

It’s been a stretch for me to get creative with my eggplant recipes, although I have posted a couple. Nothing beats a batch of vegan lasagna (I gotta post that recipe soon!) when I’ve got eggplant around, but that’s a lot of work. Simply sliced and roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper is also delicious but, for some reason, I don’t feel it’s enough of a “dish” for company (just a comfort food for me!). Beyond that, I just don’t love babaganoush…but THIS dip turned out to be filling, refreshing and deliciously ‘visitor-worthy’. Even though we don’t have many visitors these days, it’s nice to have a simple recipe for a ‘fancy’, healthy (not fried!) dish for us to enjoy at home (with a glass of red wine, maybe…). Ok, here it is:

Ingredients:

2 medium italian eggplants or 1 large one (or 3 to 4 asian eggplants)

½ an onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Large handful basil or parsley, chopped

8 cherry tomatoes, chopped in fourths

1 tbs red wine vinegar

2 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper to taste 

Instructions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees. 

Stab the eggplant with a fork several times on all sides, then put on a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper and roast until very tender (about an hour for a large Italian eggplant, check sooner, after 20 minutes, if using a smaller or more narrow variety of eggplant). 

Saute the onion over medium heat for a few minutes, then add the garlic and saute a couple more minutes. 

When eggplant is ready, take it out of oven and let cool a bit. Cut it in half lengthwise and scrape out the flesh and finely chop before putting in a bowl.

Add the sauteed onions and garlic along with the tomatoes, herbs (basil or parsley), red wine vinegar, oil, salt and pepper to the bowl and mix.

Serve with toasted bread or crackers. Again, if you go with a few seedy Norwegian Crispbread Crackers (because, they pack the protein), I’d say it counts as a meal!

Pesto!

This pesto recipe is might be close to traditional, but I tried to build in some flexibility. The deviations from more traditional recipes are because I like my pesto extra nutty and prefer the vegan option.

Ingredients:

1 cup basil (tightly packed)

2 garlic cloves

1/3 cup pine nuts (traditional, delicious but expensive!!), pistachios (not traditional, but still kinda pricey!) or sunflower seeds (saves you some $)

1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil (or more, depending on your preference)

1/8 cup nutritional yeast (this is the vegan option!) or parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp salt

Makes 1 cup.

Instructions:

There are a few ways to do this.

Method 1: To destress (if you’re not in a hurry!) get your molcajete out (your mortar and pestle for those of you not familiar with the Spanish term with Nahuatl roots) and put your strength into grinding. I recommend you do the garlic first, then your nuts or seeds of choice, and add the basil last, a little bit at a time. Your setting yourself up for frustration if you pile the basil in—it’s just a lot harder to grind so many layers of leaves at a time. For me, it’s unsatisfying! But if you add two or three leaves at a time, you can really take pleasure in the meditative transformation of the beautiful leaves into a bright paste. After the garlic, nuts or seeds and basil is ground, scrape it out into a dish and then add the salt, nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese and, finally, the olive oil. This is where you decide how thick to make your pesto. If you don’t want it so think, add more oil.

Method 2: Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Or, put it in a slightly oversized dish (like a 2-cup pyrex container, for example) and use the immersion blender directly in the dish. This is not the fastest, but by far, the easiest clean up if you can manage to keep the immersion blender immersed below the level of olive oil so that it doesn’t spray everywhere when you start to blend.

Final tip: It took me a long time to assimilate our italian roommate’s discovery that the way to mess up pesto is by adding too much garlic. I love garlic so that was hard to hear. I think he’s right though because the power of raw garlic can easily overwhelm. (This from a person who’s mouth waters at the thought of taking a bite of the fresh whole garlic clove!) So, the tip is—When in doubt, add less garlic.

Serve with pasta, in place of tomato sauce on pizza, or over soup—our family favorite (Thanks, Tio Kooki for this!) white bean pesto soup (I’ll post that recipe soon!).

Butternut Peanut Soup

Ingredients:

1 butternut

1 large onion and/or 1-3 shallots if you want to get fancy.

3 cloves garlic

2 heaping tbs chopped ginger (about a 1/4 cup)

4 heaping tbsp peanut butter

4 tbsp Soy sauce

Veggie boullion (1 or 2 cubes)

oregano

Salt and black pepper to taste

Kale (chopped in thin strips)

and/or any other veggies you want to toss in (carrots, broccoli and cauliflower are yummy additions but really, anything goes!)

Fresh herbs (basil, cilantro or parsley)

Lime

INSTRUCTIONS

Chop butternut and fry in olive oil or palm oil until browned

Transfer to a pot with just enough water to cover it and boil until soft. 

In the meantime, saute onions (and/or shallots)

Once soft, mash the butternut in the pot and then add the rest of the ingredients (except the fresh herbs and lime) and more water.

Bring to a boil and stir until peanut butter dissolves (just a few minutes)

Garnish with microgreens and/or fresh herbs (basil, cilantro or parsley works!)

And of course, I recommend a splash of lime juice and crushed chiltepin or cayenne in your bowl to spice it up.