My husband got me "The Vegan Chinese Kitchen" cookbook for a holiday gift and I made four of the dishes in one night. I chose four of the dishes because we always get a lot of Chinese food when we order so that we can try a little of everything and have enough for a few nights of leftovers. With this in mind, I made an epically large amount of Chinese food. One of the recipes in the cookbook that I came across was beautifully cooked eggplant and even after cooking and devouring all of the Chinese food that I had made, I still could not get roasted eggplant out of my mind.
This recipe was inspired by the eggplant photo in "The Vegan Chinese Kitchen" cookbook, but basically everything else is completely different. I mean, Caprese Salad is Italian after all. I just had to give credit to Hannah Che for describing the importance of really cooking eggplant to bring out the flavors and delish texture of eggplants. In my opinion, she is totally right and just like mushrooms, you have to cook eggplant a lot longer than you would think in order to benefit from its flavor.
This is a super quick, throw together and pop in the oven recipe that you will never look at eggplants the same again. I think it makes a great appetizer or even meal on it's own depending on how into baked eggplant you are that night. Either way, this is such an easy recipe and I was so wowed by the taste, I hope you are too!
How to Make Baked Eggplant Caprese Salad
Prep Time: 20 MINS
Cook Time: 1 HOURS or longer
Cool Time: None
Assembly: 10 MINS
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Total Time: 1 HOUR and 30 MINUTES
Tools: Knife, Cutting Board, Baking Sheet
Baked Eggplant Caprese Salad Recipe
Eggplant Caprese Ingredients: This is a pretty easy dish that you can throw together and forget about while it's baking, so there are no measurements. I say measure with your heart.
2 eggplants or more, sliced in half
Roma, Plum or San Marzano tomatoes, sliced in half
Fresh mozzarella, sliced
Bunch of basil
Salt and pepper to taste
Italian seasoning
Olive Oil
Really good balsamic vinegar
Directions: Most important tip: A lot of people think that eggplant is bitter and they don't like eggplant dishes. I believe it's because the eggplant is not cooked long enough and properly seasoned. So, roast it long!
Preheat the oven to 400F.
Wash the eggplant. Slice the eggplant in half from top to bottom. I like to leave the tops on the eggplant for looks and something to pick up and eat.
Create diagonal slices along the eggplant white flesh in both directions, creating a criss-cross pattern.
Drizzle the fronts and backs on the eggplant with olive oil, covering the skin and flesh well. I go a bit generous here because eggplant can absorb the oil and you don't want to burn the eggplant. Season with salt and pepper. The salt can pull out some of the water and bitterness.
Place the eggplants skin side down (or face up) and place in the oven for 35-40 minutes.
Slice the mozzarella to your preferred thickness.
Once the eggplant has roasted for 35 minutes or so, take out of the oven and sprinkle with a little Italian seasoning. Then, top with mozzarella cheese and the sliced tomatoes. I staggered the placement, but you can pile it on.
Place the eggplant back in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the cheese is fully cooked and slightly brown and bubbly. Poke the eggplant to make sure its nice and cooked through, it should look wilted and brown around the edges.
While baking, pick the basil leaves off the stems and roll the leaves. Turn the rolled basil and cut thin slices from end to end. This creates thin curly basil shreds in a process called chiffonade.
Pull out of the oven and sprinkle more Italian seasoning if needed and drizzle with balsamic vinegar and basil.
Serve warm and devour.
This can be saved in the fridge and warmed back up for leftovers. Not more than 3 days in the fridge. I would not recommend freezing due to the high water content and risk to create a mush eggplant meal after reheating.
Another tip: I have no idea if this is based on science or not, but while working in a juice bar I learned that there are male and female fruits and vegetables and one is better suited eaten raw or cooked. And this advice was also for more bitter or sweet. For the eggplant, the male has less seeds and can tend to be less bitter. How do you know? If you look at the underside of an eggplant, the base has what is called a "navel" and it's a light green or tan color that is either in the center and round or slightly off center and oblong with a more green bean appearance. The male eggplant is the round center bottom. Give it a try the next time you buy an eggplant.
Please leave me a note and tell me what you think! i truly hope you enjoy this baked eggplant meets caprese salad recipe as much as we did.
All my light. All my love,
Jordan
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