Aubergine recipes can cover all tastes. Whether vegan or meat loving, you’ll be sure to find a scrumptious recipe to try. Including curries, buddha bowls, and noodle dishes, whether stuffed, rolled, or roasted. But are they good for you? How do you cook them? Let us tell you.
Why choose aubergines?
Aubergines are high in vitamins and minerals, but low in calories, meaning they are a great addition to a balanced diet.
Benefits:
- Packed with dietary fibre, to keep your gut working properly
- Full of vitamins B1 and B6, to help turn food into energy, and keep your nervous system and red blood cells healthy
- Rich in antioxidants which help protect your body’s cells
- Versatile in meals, and easy to cook
To pick good aubergines, choose heavy ones with a deep purple skin. The skin should be smooth and shiny and free from any marks. When pressed gently, it should spring back.
Can you eat the seeds in aubergines?
The seeds in aubergines are edible. The seeds in aubergines are soft, small, and yes, edible.
Aubergines are a fruit rather than a vegetable. They are part of the nightshade family and grow in a very similar way to tomatoes. You can eat the seeds, just like you would eat the seeds in a tomato.
Brown seeds might mean your aubergines are turning, so it may be best to scoop out the seeds. The flesh should still be good to eat at this stage. If the seeds in your aubergine are black when you cut it open, it may have been left too long and will taste bitter. It may be a good idea to choose another aubergine.
Can you eat the skin on aubergines?
Yes, you can leave the skin on aubergines. The skin is entirely edible. You can peel the skin off if you want. If it’s a larger aubergine, the skin can sometimes be quite tough and sometimes bitter. The best way to determine how ripe aubergines are is to squeeze them. A ripe aubergine should dent lightly but spring back when pressure is removed.
What’s the best way to store aubergines?
The best way to store your aubergines is somewhere cool like a cupboard away from too much heat. Aubergines don’t keep for long periods of time, so, if you aren’t going to use it in the next few days, in the fridge it goes. When they start to age the skin will become wrinkled. In the fridge aubergines should last around 7 to 10 days.
What is the best way to eat aubergines?
Aubergine are versatile in cooking and can be fried, grilled, baked, or added to sauces and curries. Aubergines are spongy in texture when raw but have a delicious, creamy texture when cooked. Often used as a basis for vegan recipes, aubergines are a versatile ingredient for all kinds of meals.
You may be familiar with the idea that you need to salt your aubergines. This was the case when aubergines were generally quite bitter in taste. Nowadays this isn’t overly necessary because of the way the plant has been bred. The aubergines we’re used to aren’t generally as bitter as they once were.
This is however a good method to remove some water from the aubergine. This will firm up the flesh and reduce the amount of oil the aubergines absorb as they cook. So, salting aubergines is still a good idea, but it isn’t as necessary in the way it once was. Another way to do this is to lightly pre-cook the aubergine. You can do this by cutting up the aubergine and microwaving it for about 5 minutes.
A popular way to cook aubergines is to stuff them. This involves roasting the aubergines, sliced in halves lengthways. Once cooked, you scoop out the flesh and mix it with other ingredients to make a filling for the two now-empty halves. Check out one of our healthy stuffed aubergine recipes.
Discover the many ways to cook aubergine with our selection of healthy recipes including a variety of fish recipes, beef recipes, vegan recipes and pork recipes.
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