Stewed, baked, or fried eggplants are healthy and delicious. The right sauce will help make them even more appetizing. Vegetables go well with sour cream, cream, herbs, nuts. An interesting gravy will turn even a simple frying into a dish worthy of a festive table.
What sauces are suitable for eggplant
Eggplant is a very healthy vegetable, ideal for salads, soups, side dishes, hot and cold appetizers. Most often, eggplant dishes are prepared in gravy or the sauce is served separately. The choice depends on the overall style of the food. For example, Mediterranean-style dishes go well with sauces based on fresh or canned tomatoes, supplemented with olive oil, garlic, and herbs. Roasted walnuts, fresh or dried cilantro, plums, and various spices will add a spicy shade, typical for Caucasian cuisine.
A good addition to eggplant cooked in the oven or on a wire rack is sauces made from cheese, cream, yogurt. Cheese options are high in calories, those who prefer dietary cuisine will like options from homemade yogurt, kefir, yogurt. These gravies have a delicate fresh taste, perfect for grilled dishes.
At home, you can make both simple and more complex multicomponent sauces. The proportions of the ingredients depend on the taste and the specific recipe; the missing components can always be replaced with similar ones. For example, instead of fresh garlic, they often use dry granulated, hot red peppers are exchanged for more tender paprika, and expensive parmesan - for quite affordable processed cheese.
Nut sauce: a step by step recipe
A dietary option suitable for fried, baked, grilled vegetables. Instead of sour cream, you can use yogurt or yogurt, the proportions of garlic can be changed to taste.
Ingredients:
- 200 g low-fat sour cream;
- 3 tbsp. l. lemon juice;
- 3 cloves of garlic;
- walnut kernels;
- a bunch of parsley;
- salt.
Peel the walnuts, fry the kernels in a dry frying pan, stirring with a spatula. Cool the fried nuts, crush them in a mortar or chop finely with a knife. Wash the greens, dry and chop, pass the garlic through a press.
Pour sour cream into a bowl, salt, add garlic, parsley and chopped nuts. Mix everything well. The proportions of the ingredients can be changed to taste. If the sauce is too thick, you can add a little milk or cream and stir again. Serve the sauce cold, pouring over eggplant, fried in batter or baked on the grill.
Grilled eggplants in tomato sauce: step-by-step cooking
Grilled vegetables are a healthy alternative to pan-frying. During the cooking process, eggplants do not absorb excess oil, the total calorie content of the dish decreases.
Ingredients:
- 2 large eggplants;
- 0.75 cups olive oil
- 1 large ripe tomato;
- 2 tbsp. l. chopped capers;
- 2 tbsp. l. red wine vinegar;
- 1 tbsp. l. chopped shallots;
- a few cloves of garlic;
- salt;
- ground black pepper;
- fresh basil.
Wash the eggplants, dry them, cut into 1 cm thick slices. Sprinkle vegetables with vegetable oil and place them on the wire rack of the preheated grill. Fry vegetables for 4-5 minutes until tender, turn over and continue cooking. Put the finished eggplants on a plate, salt and pepper, keep warm until serving.
Prepare tomato sauce. Cut the tomato, put it in boiling water for a minute, remove the skin. Cut the pulp into small pieces and place in a bowl. Add 1 tbsp. l. chopped green basil, minced garlic cloves in the press, salt, freshly ground black pepper, wine vinegar, capers and onions.
Place the eggplants on plates, pour over each portion with tomato sauce and garnish with fresh basil leaves. Serve with toasted toast or baguette slices.
Eggplant in a creamy sauce: the original recipe
Stewing in a creamy sauce will make the vegetables soft and juicy. In the process of cooking, pieces of eggplant are well saturated with cream, acquire a delicate pleasant aroma. At home, such a dish can be prepared not only on the stove, but also in a multicooker. You can eat it right away, but after heating in the microwave, stewed vegetables do not lose their delicate taste.
Ingredients:
- 2 strong young eggplants;
- 4 tbsp. l. soy sauce;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 100 ml cream 20% fat;
- 1 tsp wheat flour;
- refined vegetable oil for frying;
- a bunch of parsley;
- freshly ground black pepper.
Wash the eggplants, dry, peel and cut into cubes. Put vegetables in a container of salted water for half an hour. Then put the pieces of eggplant in a colander, rinse with clean running water, and leave to dry.
Chop fresh parsley and garlic very finely or chop in a blender. Put the eggplants in a deep frying pan and, stirring occasionally, fry in hot vegetable oil. There should be a little of it, since raw eggplants actively absorb fat. When the vegetables are lightly browned. Pour soy sauce over them and mix well.
Sprinkle eggplant with flour, add cream, chopped herbs and garlic. Reduce heat, cover the pan with a lid, simmer the mixture for 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce should thicken. Arrange hot eggplants on plates, sprinkle each portion with freshly ground black pepper. Serve as an independent dish or as a side dish for meat, poultry, fried sausages.
Caucasian spicy sauce: simple and tasty
This sauce is served with grilled eggplants, vegetable rolls and other hot appetizers. If desired, thinly chopped vegetables can be covered with freshly prepared sauce and baked in the oven.
Ingredients:
- 100 peeled walnut kernels;
- 2 tbsp. l. refined vegetable oil;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- a bunch of cilantro;
- 2 tbsp. l. soy sauce;
- 50 ml of water;
- 1 tbsp. l. white wine vinegar;
- red hot pepper to taste.
Fry the walnut kernels in a dry frying pan or roast in the oven, cool and pour into a blender bowl. Grind into crumbs along with peeled garlic cloves and paprika. Put the mixture in a bowl, add soy sauce, vinegar, finely chopped fresh herbs. Pour water in portions, carefully grinding the mixture and achieving the desired consistency.
Cut the eggplants into slices and quickly fry them in hot vegetable oil or brown them on the grill. Beforehand, you can fill them with salt for 10-15 minutes, and then rinse them - this simple procedure will relieve you of unnecessary bitterness. Arrange the fried slices on portioned plates, sprinkle generously with the sauce and serve as a snack. The best accompaniment is dried white or grain bread.
Plum sauce: a savory addition to vegetables
The sweet and sour taste of plums will perfectly complement the eggplant. Vegetables can be stewed with sauce, or seasoned separately. It is better to choose late varieties of plums, they have a rich taste and delicate aroma.
Ingredients:
- 20 ripe plums;
- 1 star anise star;
- 2 tbsp. l. white wine vinegar;
- 1 cinnamon stick;
- 3 carnation buds;
- 20 g fresh ginger;
- 3 cloves of garlic;
- 3 allspice peas;
- 150 ml boiling water;
- 2 tbsp. l. Sahara;
- 1 tsp salt.
Wash the plums, cut in half, remove the seeds. Put the fruits in a saucepan, add salt, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, black pepper. Pour boiling water over, cook for 15 minutes over low heat. Remove the spices after a quarter of an hour.
Chop the garlic and ginger, add to a saucepan, pour in wine vinegar, mix. Keep the sauce on the fire for 2-3 minutes, making sure that it does not burn. Remove the saucepan from heat, cool, purée in a blender. Pour the mixture into a gravy boat and serve with the fried eggplant. If you intend to store the sauce in the refrigerator, it is best to pour it into a jar with a tightly screwed lid.
