July 9th, 2025
What’s in your share?
Beets
Basil
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Japanese Eggplant OR Green Beans
White Sweet Onions
Salad Mix
*EGGPLANT
*Japanese Eggplant - These eggplants are super underrated! Finding a good eggplant recipe is hard, but we’ve had amazing luck with the Japanese varieties. They have very small seed cavities, and less moisture content than Italian varieties, wildly reducing cooking time, and making for a less mushy/seedy dish. We love broiling and grilling them, adding them to kebabs and ratatouille, and baba ganoush is the absolute best and easiest way to have a really flavorful snack or meal.
4th of July spring rolls. It was so humid that they all stuck to the counter and ripped after taking this photo.
Eggplant is a crop that often gets pushed to the back of the fridge. That said, we wanted to focus this newsletter on the eggplant because we know it can be one of those vegetables that is unfamiliar and perhaps even unappealing. But if I’ve learned anything from working in kitchens, cooking at home, and perusing cookbooks - it’s that the preparation technique influences the outcome of the dish as much as the health of the soil. So if you’re already starting with a fresh, healthy fruit (which you are!) and use a few solid cooking tips, you should have yourself a tasty eggplant dish.
Skin: Should you peel it? Up to you! If you’re following a recipe, do as the recipe says. I tend to like the skin if the eggplant is in slices or cubes, but if I’m roasting it whole, I may scoop the eggplant out as I eat it, using the skin like a bowl (similar to a baked potato)
Texture: We’ve found that our favorite eggplant recipes are simple ones that showcase the meaty texture of the fruit. Eggplants are satisfying to chew - they give weight to a dish, can be surprisingly filling, and are often used in place of meat in vegetarian dishes. Eggplants are full of water, so one goal that I always shoot for is to be able to control where that water goes, or replace it with another, more flavorful liquid. Cooking methods like grilling and broiling are effective at drying out excess moisture. Like a sponge, if you squeeze out the water, the flesh more readily absorbs other liquid. Salting and marinating eggplant is a great way to draw out some water and subsequently create negative space that is ready to absorb. Salting eggplant is arguably outdated, but it’s not illogical. Why Is Salting Eggplant a Thing?
How to Cut Eggplant: Here are a few visual examples of ways to cut eggplant from our friend, Martha. How to Properly Cut an Eggplant
Bitterness: We have never considered eggplant to be bitter. In fact, the eggplant varieties we grow are hybrid varieties; which have been selected to be sweet and productive.
Japanese or Italian: We love both, but they have their differences. The Japanese variety is smaller, reducing cooking time. Because of its shape, there is less concentration of water in the bulk of the fruit, making it ideal for sautéing and skewering. The Italian variety is probably more familiar. The fruit is meatier, making it ideal for layering and grilling in rounds. The water content is higher, so if you’re going to roast it in halves, we recommend scoring it (see photo) to create more surface area for water to evaporate while cooking. The skin on Italian varieties is thicker than the Japanese variety.
Broiled Eggplant
2-3 eggplants (cut in half the long way, then carefully score the halves like in the photo. This will allow the eggplant to cook in the middle before it burns)
olive oil or sesame oil
salt to taste
scallions (finely chopped)
Arrange scored eggplants on a baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and salt. Broil for 15-20 minutes, checking often. They should be blackened on the top and soft in the middle. Eat as is, add to pasta or a salad, or add to an elaborate meal of other smoky and delicious things. Eggplant can also be grilled the same way.
*NEXT LEVEL: Prep in the same way, but add tomato sauce and mozzarella, and roast at 425 for 20-30 minutes.
recipes to try
Smashed Zucchini (in case you can’t view the link above)
Best Ever Greek Pita (it is seriously the best)
Small craft advisory? Too bad, we went out sailing on the lake anyways.