Eggplant and pumpkin veggie side

It’s interesting that neither one of these is a vegetable! Botanically they are both classified as fruit, and the pumpkin is a berry to be exact. So why do we call then veggies? I have no idea, maybe it’s because we have to cook them.

t
a little vegetarian for you!

I’ve tried cooking eggplant before and I have yet to be completely satisfied with the results. It’s been decent but not great by my estimation. And I know it can be great, because I’ve tasted great eggplant. So I did some googling, discovered a few things…  

I always thought that we salted the cut eggplant to get rid of the bitter taste, turns out that’s not the only reason. It’s also so that it doesn’t become soggy when you cook it. Salting draws out the water, and the more you can squeeze out the better.

t
the pumpkin my mother sent to me from her garden, look at those colours, it’s just gorgeous!

Some sites suggested leaving the salted eggplant in a colander all day to get out as much water as possible, other said to add weight so that the water is squeezed out faster. I ended up cooking this one day later than I had planned just so I could start early enough to get out as much water as possible.

t
some more pretty colour. I only used four of them for this dish and that made exactly two servings
t
cut off the tops and bottoms, then quartered them lengthwise and sprinkled salt over them

I used the weighted method….

w
so the eggplant quarters are in the colander covered by layers of serviette, topped with a mixing bowl full of mangoes to weigh them down

I got more water in the plate than I expected, not a whole lot but more than I expected for sure. I also  had to pad them dry when it was time to cook ’cause they were still dripping slowly.

The recipe for this side is also from my mother, she gave it to me when I called to thank her for the pumpkin. Perfect timing ’cause I had just bought the eggplant while grocery shopping the day before.

It’s a simple one, all you need is
3 cloves of garlic, grated
1 cup grated pumpkin
1 medium sized white onion, sliced
1 large eggplant cut into pieces suitable for serving (or can use many of the little ones like I did)
cooking oil

Start with the garlic and some water, add the oil. Once the garlic begins to bubble add the onion.

h
once the onion softens, add the grated pumpkin, stir a couple of times then add the eggplant pieces
l
just two or three minutes and the eggplant should be done

Taste for salt, more if needed, then serve immediately.

t
yummy!

Husband Rating: ★★★★★★★½☆☆

About aika

Making, eating and sharing good food are a splendid way to start, brake and end a day! I post good eats on www.pendolamama.co.ke. Life is a feast, eat up!

__

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.