To grill eggplant, use fresh, firm produce with smooth, shiny skin. Leave the skin on and salt and drain the eggplant before grilling. Grill on medium heat until fully cooked. Avoid marinating in salty marinades or adding extra salt.
One of the best tips for grilling eggplant is to use fresh, quality produce and take the time to prepare the vegetable before placing it on the grill. Unlike other cooking methods, grilling eggplant doesn’t require peeling the vegetable and, often, the best eggplant is simply seasoned. Many people prefer the taste that a charcoal grill produces in this vegetable, although a gas grill can also be a good option.
The key to producing great grilled eggplant is to start with the best quality eggplant available. The vegetable should be very firm and feel heavier than its size indicates. The skin should be shiny and smooth; an eggplant with breaks or cracks in its skin won’t be the best for grilling. When you touch the eggplant, it shouldn’t feel hollow. For a less bitter dish, using an eggplant with a round, shallow button on the bottom may help; eggplants with a deep, long mark at the bottom should be avoided.
When grilling eggplant, it’s usually best to leave the skin on. This helps the eggplant keep its shape and prevents it from cracking while on the grill. By salting and draining the eggplant before grilling it, the bitterness common with the skin is usually reduced.
Eggplant is usually best grilled in slices on the grates, rather than wrapped in foil. Cutting the product into discs or slabs makes it possible to grill directly on the grill. Once the vegetable is cut into the desired shape, it should be lightly salted with kosher salt and left in a colander to drain for an hour. This will allow plenty of moisture to be absorbed into the eggplant, improving the texture and ensuring that excess oil is not soaked into the product as the eggplant cooks.
After the hour is up, the eggplant slices should be rinsed with cold water and gently squeezed and patted dry to remove excess liquid. At this point, the slices can be marinated or simply brushed lightly with oil and seasoned with pepper. No matter what type of seasoning you use before grilling the eggplant, it’s important not to marinate the vegetable in a salty marinade or add extra salt during seasoning; the salt used to draw out the water in the first step will already leave the eggplant salty enough for most people.
Eggplants can be grilled on a charcoal or gas grill until tender. Medium to medium heat is usually best for this. Unlike other grilled vegetables, eggplant is usually best cooked until fully done. Raw or undercooked eggplants can be bitter.
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