Recipes   > Ingredient Archive   >  Eggplant

Eggplants come in a staggering array of shapes and sizes, but if you’ve run across the white, egg-shaped variety, you’ll know where this vegetable got its name. The dark purple, globe-shaped eggplants on display in just about every market are the most common — but there are many more varieties than most of us are likely to ever encounter, some with flamboyant skin colors such as pink and white, jade green, orange, and pale lavender. They can vary in size from several pounds to the golf-ball-size variety used in Thai cuisine.

The eggplant is a member of the nightshade family and is related to potatoes and tomatoes. It’s not a vegetable, botanically speaking, and although it’s considered a fruit, it’s actually a berry! It has been known since the 5th century in China, and it spread gradually throughout Asia, the Near East, and the Middle East, reaching Europe with Arab traders in the 13th century.

In Europe the eggplant encountered great prejudice because of its botanical relationship to the deadly nightshade (or belladonna). Europeans called it “the mad apple,” and it wasn’t until the 16th century that the Spaniards and Italians first developed an appreciation for it. In Northern Europe and England, eating eggplant was thought to induce insanity, and it was grown there for ornamental purposes only until the 1800s.

The flesh of an eggplant is greenish-white and heavily seeded. Raw, it’s flavorless and bland; once cooked, however, its sponge-like flesh soaks up the flavors of other ingredients, turning it supple, silky and rich. Good eggplant has a melting texture and a meaty quality. Eggplants are incredibly versatile and can be baked, grilled, braised, stuffed, fried, boiled, steamed, or sautéed.

The pendulous, large, dark purple Globe eggplant is the most familiar and widely available variety in this country. It’s available year-round, but because it needs a long, hot growing season, eggplant is at its peak in late summer and early fall. At their best, Globe eggplants have pale flesh with few visible seeds. Peeling is optional, although when past their prime, the skins can be tough and bitter and then are best removed. Japanese eggplants are long, slim, and usually purple-skinned, although they can be pale mauve. They’re lightly seeded, with mild and sweet-tasting flesh — perfect for grilling and stir-frying, as they don’t need peeling, and their flesh holds its shape well when cooked. White eggplants have firm, moist flesh and less bitterness than the darker color varieties, but their skins are tough, which makes them perfect for stuffing.

Eggplants are very perishable, so it’s important to select them at their prime. Look for firm specimens with taut, smooth, and shiny skins. Once the skin starts to wrinkle or have soft spots, the quality of the eggplant has been compromised, and it turns bitter. Choose an eggplant that’s heavy for its size and sports a fresh, bright green calyx (the cap of leaves at the stem end). When you press into the skin of a Globe eggplant, a dent should appear, but then quickly refill. Oversize eggplants may be tough, seedy, and bitter, so choose medium-size specimens, 3-6 inches in diameter.

An eggplant’s taste and quality suffers if it’s kept too cold; its flesh will turn soggy and its skin will brown if chilled too long. The ideal temperature for storage is 50 degrees F. If possible, use your eggplant within a day of purchase or harvest. Otherwise, store eggplant whole and unwashed in plastic bags in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator for up to 3 days.

The debate still rages regarding the virtue of salting eggplant before cooking. In the past, chefs salted eggplant to reduce bitterness, although modern commercial varieties are generally not bitter unless they’re past their prime. If your eggplant is fresh and hasn’t been stored too long, salting isn’t necessary for taste, but it’s still commonly advised in many recipes to remove excess moisture. Salting also condenses the flesh so it absorbs less oil in cooking, which is worth noting since studies have shown that eggplant absorbs more fat than any other vegetable during cooking.

There are several methods for salting eggplant, but one of the easiest is to cut the eggplant according to the recipe, then place slices or chunks on a baking tray lined with several thicknesses of paper towels. Salt evenly and cover the eggplant with more paper towels. Place another baking sheet atop the eggplant, weight it down with a heavy can, and let it drain for 30 minutes at room temperature. Wipe off the excess salt and use more paper towels to pat the eggplant dry. If sodium is a concern, you can also rinse the eggplant under cold, running water and thoroughly pat dry. Note that Asian eggplants do not need to be salted.

Eggplant is low in calories (about 130 calories for a whole eggplant), virtually fat-free, and very high in potassium and fiber. The rich color of its skin is a sure sign that this vegetable contains an array of phytochemicals; they’re powerful antioxidants that combat free radicals, molecules that can cause cellular damage and are partly responsible for aging.

Eggplant figures predominantly in Mediterranean, Indian, Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian cuisine, and there are literally tens of thousands of recipes for this most adaptable vegetable (Turkey is thought to have more than 1,000 alone). Eggplant’s meatlike texture makes it a vegetarian’s delight, and its remarkable transformation from blandness to luscious flavor once cooked lets it combine wonderfully with a wide array of ingredients. Use it in dips and spreads, soups, curries, pasta dishes, gratins, salads, and stir-frys — its versatility seems limited only by your imagination. For new ideas, check out our eggplant recipes from around the world at the top of this page.