Coconut Curry Brushed Baby Eggplant

This dish was well received as a side dish to our friend’s dinner, but could have stood alone as an Hors D’Oeuvre also.  Eggplant is one of those lovely vegetables that will absorb flavors and spices beautifully due to its’ silky spongy nature, and it is incredibly good for you. Eggplant is a very good source of dietary fiber, vitamin B1 and copper. It is a good source of manganese, vitamin B6, niacin, potassium, folate and vitamin K. It also contains phytonutrients such as nasunin and chlorogenic acid. To learn more about these little nightshade lovelies please visit one of our favorite sites The World’s Healthiest Foods. Always see if you can buy organic, of course, right now they are in season, so you should have no problems locating these beauties.

I encourage you to try this dish for a dinner or cocktail party, as it is so easy and quick to make, as well as inexpensive – your oven will do the rest, freeing up valuable time for other things.

Coconut & Curry Mixture

You can see that some are not yet basted…

Here is what you’ll need:

• 20 baby eggplants, washed and dish towel dried
• 1/2 can of full fat coconut milk
• 1 heaping tablespoon (maybe a little more…depending on your taste) of your favorite “spicy” Indian curry
• Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
• 1 1/2 tbsps coconut oil

Here’s what you do:

Pre-heat your convectional oven to 350 degrees. I used a large Pyrex pan as you can see, but you can use any oven save pan that suits you. Avoid a cookie sheet, because the eggplants need to be cradled to keep the moisture. Oil your baking pan with the coconut oil. Next, whisk the coconut milk and curry until smooth. Begin to slice the eggplants in halves after you’ve cut their tops off.  Next place the baby eggplants into your baking dish. Please make sure that you don’t pre-cut your eggplants as they have a tendency to turn brown. With your (silicone) basting brush, ensure even distribution of the coconut milk – curry mixture; sprinkle with some Himalayan Pink and shove it in the oven. Done! See how easy was that?  Let the dish bake for 40 minutes on 350 degrees and then turn the heat up to 400 for 7 to 10 minutes. If you are not ready to serve it yet, cover it with aluminum foil – it will keep perfect for another 15 mins. Sprinkle additional sea salt if desired.

We hope that you enjoy this dish. Jo/NK