Eggplant Pesto Pizza

Eggplant season is here again and we are eating it every chance we get! With this pizza recipe the time varies widely depending on how you choose to make your pizza crust. You can buy pizza crust from the store to make the process quicker and easier, or you can make pizza from scratch. If you make it from scratch, make sure to check your recipe to get a sense of how much time that will take. Another option one of our friends does is to make dough from scratch and freeze it for later.

Makes: 1 large pizza

Time: 1 hr + additional time if making pizza dough from scratch

Pizza Crust (Anne uses the Joy of Cooking recipe, but any recipe or store bought would do just fine), for gluten-free pizza crust we recommend Simple Mills Brand

1 medium eggplant

1 medium zucchini

1 batch of sun-dried tomato pesto, on the thicker side

3 garlic cloves, minced

(optional) 1/2 bunch of kale, chiffonaded

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If you are making the pizza dough from scratch, check your recipe to see how long you need for dough preparation. Prepare your crust for toppings, remembering to take into account any resting or cooling time it might need. Now we will discuss how to prepare the toppings.

Turn on your broiler. Peel the eggplant and cut it into long slabs about 1/2 inch thick. Brush both sides with olive oil and place on a broiler pan. Broil about 7 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. When broiling, it’s very easy to burn the eggplant, so make sure to set a timer each time and listen to the timer. When the eggplant is soft and browned on both sides, remove it from the oven and set aside. The browning may be splotchy, but that is ok.

Pre-heat the oven according to your pizza dough instructions. If you need to do any more work on the crust before adding the toppings, now is a good time to do that.

Next, mince the garlic and then slice the zucchini into long thin strips. Heat up a pan with oil and sauté the zucchini until it is golden brown on one side, and lightly browned on the other side, about 15 minutes. Then add the garlic and cook an extra 3 minutes until the garlic is fragrant.

If you have a pizza peel and a pizza stone, you will build your pizza on the peel sprinkled with cornmeal or semolina flour and cook it on the stone. If you don’t, it is easy to cook this pizza on a cookie sheet. Or to use a cookie sheet, pizza stone combo.

If you are adding the optional kale, you can wilt it in a pan with a little oil while the pizza is in the oven.

Spread the pesto onto the pizza crust. Cut or tear your eggplant into long strips and cover the pesto with the eggplant.  The combination of eggplant and pesto will make everything hold together nicely.  Top with the zucchini and put in the oven.  Bake about ten minutes and then optionally add the kale.  Continue to bake until the crust is golden (about 5 more minutes, but can vary a lot depending on the crust). Remove from oven, let cool slightly. Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Eggplant Chickpea Curry

After gorging ourselves on Italian style eggplant tomato dishes all summer long, we love this recipe that uses up some late summer garden crops! We particularly enjoy the ribbons of chard running through it.

Serves: 6

Time: 1.5 hrs

Ingredients

1.5 cups cooked and spiced chickpeas* (1 can)

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch ginger, minced

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground fenugreek (this spice can be a challenge to find, the curry is perfectly good without it if you cannot get your hands on some)

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 bunch of cilantro

5 roma tomatoes or two beefsteaks, diced (or 14.5oz canned diced tomatoes)

.5 lb (2 small) potatoes (we like the waxy kind like a carola or yukon gold)

16 oz of water

1 can coconut milk

1 bunch of swiss chard, cut in ribbons

1 cup rice

olive oil

For the eggplant:

2 lbs eggplant (preferably Japanese if available), cut into 1 inch cubes

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

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If you are using dry chickpeas, follow the instructions at the end of this recipe.

Chop and salt the eggplant and let sit 20 min. This is best done in a colander over the sink as the eggplant will release liquid. Pre-heat the oven to 375 F. Drain eggplant and toss with 1/2 tsp cayenne, and 2 tbsp oil. Lay out the seasoned eggplant on a sheet pan and roast until soft and browning on the edges, this takes 45 minutes in our oven, stirring every 15 minutes. Taste a piece, it should be sweet. If bitter or crunchy, it is not done yet.

Cook the rice. Chop and boil the potatoes in well salted water. Drain when fork tender.

Sweat the onions in olive oil over medium heat about 10 minutes. Add garlic and ginger, cook another 2 minutes. Add remaining spices, stir to coat onions and allow to cook about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and 16 oz water and simmer until the tomatoes are soft and beginning to form a sauce, about 20 minutes, stirring regularly. Add eggplant, chickpeas, boiled potatoes, and coconut milk, simmer about 5 minutes. Add swiss chard and cook until wilted. Garnish with cilantro, and serve over rice.

*Cooking chickpeas from dry:

In the Instant Pot:

To cook the chickpeas in an Instant Pot, add 3/4 cup of dried chickpeas to the pot. Cover the chickpeas with water (in the small Instapot this is about 6 cups of water), season with 1 tbsp kosher salt, 1 tbsp turmeric, 1 tbsp coriander, and 1/4 tsp cayenne. Set the Instapot to pressure cook for 35 minutes letting depressurize naturally. Drain and rinse before adding to the dish.

On the stove:

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can easily cook chickpeas from scratch with a little planning. First you will need to soak the chickpeas which can be done one of two ways. 1. you can soak them overnight making sure they have enough water and space to double in size or 2. you can put them in a pot and bring to boil, then turn off the water and let soak for one hour. Again, make sure you have enough water and space that they can double in size.

Once you have soaked your beans, rinse them and then put in a pot with salty water. These will be cooking for about 2 hours so you don’t want as much salt as you would use for pasta, but you do want to add enough that you can taste the salt. The best way to get good at this is to practice. Each time you salt the water, taste it and when the beans are done taste them to see if they are well salted. A well salted bean should taste flavorful but not salty. If it tastes like you are eating salt, you added too much. If the bean lacks flavor then you didn’t have enough salt.

For this recipe, also add 1 tbsp turmeric, 1 tbsp coriander, and 1/4 tsp cayenne to the chickpeas as they cook. Cook the chickpeas until they are soft but not falling apart (this will take 1.5-2 hours). We recommend checking the beans at about an hour and then every 20 minutes until they are soft but not disintegrating. Make sure your pot has enough water as I have definitely cooked all the water off before and burnt the beans! This may seem like a lot of work, however once you get the hang of it the work is almost all passive and the reward is high: chickpeas cooked from scratch taste much better and are much cheaper!

Creamy Cauliflower with Breaded Eggplant Cutlets and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

We posted a recipe for eggplant cutlets earlier this month and this is a new twist on how to serve cutlets. This recipe has many moving parts and they all come together to make a divine dining experience! The cauliflower is light and creamy and offers the perfect balance to spicy greens and delicious crispy eggplant. If you don’t want to spend a whole evening cooking this, you can easily make the cauliflower and red pepper sauce ahead of time and just heat it up when the eggplant and greens are finished cooking. This flavor combination can also be achieved with less labor by buying pre-made options. There are several frozen brands of breaded eggplant cutlets available on the market, and in many markets you can also buy roasted red pepper in a can or bottle. Either or both could be substituted in this recipe to achieve this flavor combination in a much faster way.

Serves: 6-8

Time: 2 hours 45 minutes

Ingredients

for the mashed cauliflower:

1 head of cauliflower

3 cloves roasted garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

salt

for the roasted red pepper sauce:

2 red bell peppers, roasted

2 cloves roasted garlic

1 jalepeno, seeds removed

1/2 onion, chopped and sauteed

1/4 cup of almond pulp (can substitute 1/4 soaked cashew/almond blend)

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

water, until desired consistency

1 tsp salt

for the eggplant cutlet:

3 medium eggplants, cut into 1/4” coins

kosher salt

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

4 pieces of toast or two cups of bread crumbs (a gluten free bread or crumb will work here)

1/2 cup oats gluten-free option

3/4 cup sunflower seeds

2 tbsp garlic powder

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 tbsp salt, if your sunflower seeds are salted, you will need less salt.

3/4 tsp pepper, divided

3 or 4 eggs

olive oil

for the fried greens:

1 bunch dark leafy greens (kale, swiss chard, collards, spinach, etc)

3 T high heat oil (we like avocado)

1/4 tsp szechuan pepper (if available)

squeeze of lemon

Salt

Cut eggplant into 1/4” thick coins. Layer them in a colander salting each layer generously. Leave eggplant to drain about 20 minutes. This will pull the moisture from the eggplant allowing it to cook faster and get sweeter.

There are many ways to roast a red pepper. If you have a gas stove, you can place the pepper directly on the burner, turn the burner on and cook, flipping with tongs until all the sides are charred. If you don’t have a gas stove, it can be done in the broiler. Move a shelf to the top of the oven and turn on the broiler. Place the red peppers under the coils of the broiler and allow to cook about 6 minutes before rotating the peppers. The skins should char. Remove the peppers from the oven once the skins are charred on all sides (about 24 minutes). Either way you cook the peppers, once they are charred on all sides, quickly place them in a bowl and cover with lid (this makes them easier to peel). Set the bowl aside.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Roast garlic. You can do this a number of ways and our two favorite are to use a garlic roaster or a small cast iron pan. If you are using a garlic roaster, chop the tops off the garlic, drizzle a bit of oil into the garlic cloves, put this into the garlic roaster and roast in oven for about 45 minutes. To use a small cast iron pan, peel the garlic and place cloves in the cast iron pan with a small amount of olive oil. Roast this in the oven for about 20 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Either way, the garlic should look golden brown and be very soft. With the cast iron method, it is easier to burn the garlic so make sure to check on it.

Once the eggplant has been salted for 20 minutes it should have released some moisture that you will be able to see on the surface. Press the eggplant between kitchen towels to remove the moisture and some of the salt. Rip your toast into chunks before putting it into the food processor with the oats.  Blend them until they are sandy with slightly larger chunks.  Add the sunflower seeds, garlic powder, nutritional yeast, salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper.  Blend until the majority of the sunflower seeds have been cut at least once, but not so far that the mixture looks homogeneous.  Leave some sunflower seed chunks. Assemble a workstation with a shallow bowl of beaten eggs, a shallow bowl of cornstarch mixed with 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp pepper, and a shallow bowl of the breadcrumb mixture. Dip the egg in the cornstarch, then the egg, and then breadcrumbs. Start with two eggs and add more as necessary to coat all the eggplant. Place on oiled baking sheet and bake in the oven for 1 hr flipping every 20 minutes.

While your eggplant cooks chop and saute the onion about 7 minutes until soft and starting to caramelize.

Put a pot of salty water on to boil. The water should taste about as salty as sea water so that the potatoes soak in the water and are perfectly salted when done. Don’t worry if these feels like a lot of salt; you will be draining the water.

Rough chop the cauliflower removing the core and leaves. Add the cauliflower to the heavily salted water and cook until fork tender (about 15 minutes). Drain the cauliflower and allow to sit for 10 min.

Next create the roasted red pepper sauce. Remove the roasted pepper from the covered bowl and remove the skin over the sink, rinsing off the char. Remove the seeds and stems. Add to a food processor with the remaining roasted red pepper ingredients and blend until mostly smooth. If you are using almond pulp, you will need a bit of water to make the sauce a nice texture. If you are using almond milk or cashew crema you may not need water. Put the sauce in a small jar or bowl.

Rinse your food processor and then combine all ingredients for the mashed cauliflower and blend until smooth and fluffy.

Lastly, rinse, de-stem, and thinly slice your greens. Heat a pan with 3 tbsp of high heat oil and wait until oil is very hot. Add greens and flip with tongs until greens are wilted and maybe a bit golden brown on some sides. If using szchuan pepper add to the pan right as greens are starting to wilt. Garnish with a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of salt.

To assemble, layer mashed cauliflower on a plate. Next place the eggplant cutlet and pour roasted red pepper sauce over the eggplant. Finally top with fried greens and enjoy!

Eggplant Lasagna

Celebration of eggplant season continues with this delicious lasagna. Layers of delicious cheesiness, soft perfectly salted eggplant, and beautiful ribbons of chard make this a summer delight. This makes 8-10 servings making it perfect for a family dinner or just for one if you love lasagna. We also love to freeze the leftovers of this meal. What’s better when you have nothing left to eat than looking into your freezer and seeing some home-made lasagna all ready for you to bake?

Serves: 8-10

Time: 2hr 15min; 1.5 hours is inactive

Ingredients:

2 eggplants (1.5lb)

Salt

Olive oil

1 block of firm tofu, pressed

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp veggie bouillon (We like Better than Bouillon)

1/2 cup hot water

1 bunch chard

26 oz jar tomato sauce (Feel free to use homemade or store-bought)

1 batch cashew cheese

1 box of lasagna noodles (gluten-free option)

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Cut eggplant into 3/4 inch cubes. Salt them generously and leave to drain in a strainer over the sink for at least half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Wrap the eggplant in a kitchen towel and squeeze to remove any surface moisture and some of the salt. Toss the eggplant in olive oil on a cookie sheet and roast about 45 minutes, turning every 15 minutes. The eggplant should be soft but not disintegration.

Put a 4-6 quart pot of water on the stove to boil. Add salt generously, it should be similar to seawater.

Press the tofu between two layers of kitchen towel with a weight (like a cast iron pan) for about 10 minutes. Add 3 tbsp olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Crumble the tofu into the hot pan and scramble about 10 minutes until it is starting to color. Add 1/2 tsp salt and the cornstarch to the tofu and cook an additional 5 minutes until you get some crispy bits. Dissolve the bouillon in the hot water and add to the tofu. The water should boil immediately. Mix the tofu until the water has mostly boiled off, about 3 minutes.

Make cashew cheese if you have not already done so.

Boil the pasta in the salted water according to the instructions on the box.

Cut the chard into ribbons.

To layer the lasagna, start with tomato sauce on the bottom, then layer noodles, eggplant, cheese, chard, tomato sauce, noodles, tofu, cheese, chard, tomato sauce, and repeat until you have used all the ingredients. I like to end with a layer of tomato and cheese on top of the final layer of noodles. Bake in the preheated oven 45 minutes or as long as the box of noodles says.

If you plan to freeze, wait until it has cooled completely. Freeze within 24 hours of baking, good for about 5 days after thawing.