As part of my veg pledge I am incorporating an additional 1 cup of veggies to my diet per day. Well that is pretty easy for me to do as I am a long time vegetarian. So I decided to increase the challenge by eating some of the vegetables that I don’t care for.
Enter the eggplant.
For some reason this purple night shade veggie has never appealed to me. I tried making eggplant chips, figured that would be an easy introduction. I sliced them and put them in the oven and then went on my merry way. Totally forgot they were baking. Yeah, they burned. I hate when that happens and I really detest wasting food.
Time for a Plan B. I searched the web for a recipe and then did what I usually do. Stalked the cooking aisle at my local library. I found a really cool cookbook called From Tapas to Meze by Joanne Weir. She has a pretty tasty eggplant recipe – Algerian Eggplant Jam. I didn’t change any of the ingredients just lessened the oil to lower the amount of fat and calories.
This eggplant jam makes a tasty pungent appetizer. The addition of the harissa really kicks up the heat. I added another 1/8 teaspoon of the harissa. Some like it hot.
Don’t forget to come back Monday and see what I can do with peas. Yikes!
Have a wonderful day everyone and thanks for stopping by.
Recipe – From Tapas to Meze
3 medium eggplant (I used 5 small eggplant)
5 tablespoons olive oil (I only used 1 teaspoon of oil)
3 cloves garlic crushed
2 teaspoons paprika
1 1/4 teaspoons cumin
1/8 teaspoon harissa (recipe below) or 1/4 teaspoons cayenne
1 1/2 cups water
3-4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
Crusty bread or crackers
Slice the eggplants and put them into a colander, add salt and let them sit for about 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 375. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Rinse the eggplant, pat them dry and place ina single layer on the baking tray. Bake for 30 minutes until soft, turning them over half way through. Once the eggplant are cooked put them in the food processor with the remaining ingredients except the lemon use. You don’t want a puree so just process to a chunky consistency. Heat a pan with 1 teaspoon oil and saute the eggplant until all the moisture has cooked away. Stir in the lemon juice and cook another minute. Serve with crusty bread, pita or crackers.
Harissa
1/2 ounce dried red chili peppers
1 clove garlic
large pinch sea salt
3 tablespoon eevo
In a small sauce pan cover the peppers with water and bring to a boil then turn to low and simmer for a couple of minutes. Let them then soak for an hour, drain.
Place the drained chilies, salt and garlic in a food processor and process until to a puree. Add the oil and spoon into a jar. Refrigerate and use as needed.
Oh this totally reminds me of a better version of baba ganouj. Love the spice factor! Bookmarked so I can make this as an app for the next time I have a game night :)
Eggplants, yes, they are some of my favorite. What a great way to get more veggies into your diet. I want to try this soon. Thank you for sharing with me! I hope you are having a blessed day.
This sounds like a great way to have eggplant and your pics are gorgeous!
I’m afraid I can’t agree with you on the eggplants! They’re the best things ever! You can slice them up thinly and and then deep-fry for eggplant chips, roasted, or you should try a baba ghanoush or aubergine caviar too… sooo yummy :D
Love the idea of eggplant jam – sounds delicious and I love harissa. I always add cumin and caraway to mine, which makes for a wonderful flavour :)
Thanks Charles, my first time making the harissa, I love it, next time I will add the cumin. I am going to have to check out the aubergine caviar, sounds interesting.
This recipe seems to be calling my name–I have an eggplant and some harissa in my fridge right now.
I really have difficulties grasping how anyone can not like eggplants (which happen to be one of my favorite vegetables). It’s so versatile and so much can be done with it, though it can be tricky to cook, for it not to be like rubber or soak up too much oil. This looks like a great recipe which I’m surely to try, if you’re into discovering more of eggplants then Sicilian caponata is the thing to try!
yumly …. . AS grown up in vegetarian family I love egg plant and its preparation. lovely recipe . I like your harissa recipe same way my mom prepare we call it” Chatani” in India. we add jaggary and lemon other ingredients are same (some times dried and some time green chilli ).
I donot know what is evvo ?
This jam sounds delish! Love eggplant and anything spicy!
So sorry about your eggplant chips…I’m glad I’m not alone doing stuff like that! And your jam sounds quite tasty…are you an eggplant convert now????
Hyey Liz, I think I just disguised the eggplant with the harissa sauce. I need to try something that doesn’t cover up the veggie, LOL. Can’t really say that I am a convert yet. I am going to try making the eggplant chips again.
I just returned from grocery shopping and really wishing I had grab a couple of eggplants. My husband loves eggplant…. I enjoy it but find I only have a few things I can do with it. And that gets boring. I love the spice in this dish. I can’t wait to try it.
I love the idea of this challenge and how it’s causing you to eat vegetables you wouldn’t normally eat. I actually love eggplant! And I think you’ve chosen a great recipe because I think Middle Eastern recipes have great uses for eggplant. Looking forward to seeing what you do with peas! xx
I love mashed and spiced eggplant what we called baingan bhartha and I am sure I will love this jam too.
What a great appetizer! Love the addition of the harissa! I love eggplant so I’m so glad that you finally found a recipe that you like. Gorgeous pics Suzi! Have a great weekend!
I love this spicy jam.
When I know the taste of mashed eggplants there is no doubt this jam would taste wonderful.
Suzi, what a lovely post! I think we had eggplants three times this week, just love them. And I think they are in season somewhere (Mexico?) as they sell it here for a very reasonable price. And they are super fresh!
My favorite part of this jam is the harissa (which I discovered last year and fell in love with!)
Forgive my ignorance but I didn’t know there was such a thing as vegetable jam until now – thank you for bringing such a delicious spread to the light for me :D
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
wow, this is such a creative idea!! definitely trying this next time i pick up an eggplant!
Thats indeed a great find Suzi, I am going to save that for a try out. Algerian eggplant jam your saying? I had never heard of thid dish before.
thanks for sharing :D
I love eggplant but only problem of this recipe for me is the spiciness. My husband will kill the whole batch though. I need to train my tummy to be able to eat spicy food. :-)
Hi Nami. In my house we are just the opposite, I go for the heat but not my husband. I add it after. Have a lovely weekend.
By the way, did you know that you have a Japanese pestle and mortar? I forgot to mention earlier! =) So happy to see it in your kitchen!
Hi Nami, I love that pestle and mortar and I bought it in my favorite Asian store. So glad that you noticed it, I use it a lot. The inside is ridged so it really helps when making things into a paste.
I like the sound of this jam, but your first photo with the sun streaming in makes the whole thing look even more delicious!
Funny but eggplant is a vegetables that always leaves a big question mark on my eyes when encountering it. I like eating the marinated ones from Greek or Turkish vendors but never really managed to come up with anything myself except ratatouille and putting them on a grill with some oil and garlic.
I like the flavours that come together here so maybe this is just the right thing for me to add to my eggplant repertoire. ;)
I agree with you on the question mark with the eggplant. I think with this spicy jam I may well have just disguised the eggplant with the spicy, LOL.
it look delicious and interesting recipe…thanks for sharing.
Thanks Tess hope you have a wonderful eveining. Looking forward to more of your posts.
Gorgeous photos and a most intriguing appetizer!
Aw thank you Claudia, you are so sweet.
This looks great – I like eggplants and I like harissa, both recipes sound great.
What a neat spread! I love harissa – especially homemade. I’ll have to keep this in mind for the next party.
Hey Laure. This was the first time I made harissa sauce and that stuff is good, spicy spicy.
This is probably about the most unique preparation I have seen with eggplant! Bravo to you for trying to be creative and make something appealing that includes some of your “not so favorite” veggies. That is a very smart and healthy way to go!
Oh and I do see that harissa in there, I sometimes get a spice for something in particular and then think what can I use the rest of this for- well here is the answer to that dilemma. Well done!
Aw thank you Tina. That harissa sauce is very spicy hot but I love it. I will keep making it and store in the fridge.
Oh, this looks lovely – I am a huge eggplant addict, and I love the use of harissa. Bookmarked! :)
Thanks Kiri. I saw a lot of eggplant dishes today including your site. Funny huh.
I’m kind of loving eggplant lately, and this sounds amazing. I will definitely try this!
Mmmmmm… this looks absolutely fantastic!! I personally love eggplant so I would really enjoy this. Love the harissa recipe too. :) Well done Suzi! :)
That sounds spicy. Just how we like it. :-)
Thanks, I love spicy and that harissa is definitely spicy.