Have you ever bought a vegetable without a recipe to use it for. I regularly do it with eggplant. They are so smooth, beautifully colored—I can’t help it. The other day my dear friend was over for an afternoon play date and she asked me what I was making for dinner. I rummaged through my veggie bin and pulled out an eggplant and she said, “oh my mother just made a really good roasted eggplant spread, I’ll share the recipe”. In the end that night’s dinner, as it often does, turned into Pesto Chicken Quinoa.

So when my friend’s eggplant recipe hit my inbox, I tried it….then I ate pretty much all of it. I didn’t advertise that it was in the house, just kept it as mama’s snack. It’s creamy and full of roasted flavor. Each bite has tons of flavor and I loved how many veggies it enabled me to eat. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, which I omitted. I think it would have been too salty, especially since I added some feta on top. Feta was a perfect complement to the Mediterranean flavors of eggplant, olive oil. I ate it as a dip with Trader Joe’s quinoa tortilla chips, but pita chips would be yummy too.

If you’re thinking that you’ll omit the 1 tablespoon of tomato paste because the can contains 11 more tablespoons you don’t want to deal with, then try this Tip & Trick for saving the extra tomato paste.

1 medium eggplant
2 red bell peppers, seeded
1 red onion, peeled
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons feta cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the eggplant, bell pepper, and onion into 1-inch cubes. Toss them in a large bowl with the garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread them on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, until the vegetables are lightly browned and soft, tossing once during cooking.
Cool slightly.

Place the vegetables in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, add the tomato paste, and pulse 3 or 4 times to blend. Taste for salt and pepper. Sprinkle feta cheese on top.

Roasted Eggplant Spread

 

Print

Prep time

45 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

1 hour

 

Author: Ina Garten

Recipe type: appetizer

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 red bell peppers, seeded
• 1 red onion, peeled
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Cut the eggplant, bell pepper, and onion into 1-inch cubes. Toss them in a large bowl with the garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread them on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, until the vegetables are lightly browned and soft, tossing once during cooking. Cool slightly.
3. Place the vegetables in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, add the tomato paste, and pulse 3 or 4 times to blend. Taste for salt and pepper.

3.2.1303

Related posts: