Making Blistered Eggplant with Tomatoes, Olives and Feta Cheese on Facebook
Why not make today a “meatless Monday” and prepare a delicious summer salad for dinner?
I hope you caught my special Facebook LIVE last week. I had so much fun sharing my recipe for blistered eggplant with tomatoes, olives and feta cheese from my latest cookbook, “Martha Stewart’s Vegetables" - in bookstores next week! You’ll love this book! It’s filled with so many great recipes and ideas - we’ve even chosen some of the dishes to be part of our Martha & Marley Spoon meal kits this fall - I hope you’ve signed up!
During this Facebook LIVE, I was joined by my head gardener, Ryan McCallister. We answered questions and talked about all the wonderful vegetables growing at my Bedford, New York farm. I also showed one of my favorite ways to serve and eat fresh corn on the cob - it's so delicious! If you missed the show, you can still watch it - just click on this link to my Facebook LIVE chat on cooking eggplant. Enjoy these photos.
- “Martha Stewart’s Vegetables” will be in bookstores September 6th. I am so excited about this book – it is an indispensable resource for selecting, storing, preparing, and cooking all sorts of vegetables.
- Here is the cover – the photography is extraordinary. The book is filled with stunning images, great tips and 150-recipes! You can pre-order the book today! https://www.amazon.com/Martha-Stewarts-Vegetables-Inspired-Choosing/dp/0307954447
- You don’t always have to have meat with your meal – you can enjoy a lovely dinner with good, healthy, delicious vegetables. This book will give you lots of ideas for all the vegetables you grow or buy at the market.
- Here I am with the head gardener from my farm, Ryan McCallister. He oversees the care of the flower gardens, the landscapes and all the vegetables we grow at my farm.
- For our blistered eggplant dish, I’m using this ‘Nubia’ eggplant. It’s a beautifully striped variegated Italian variety with a mellow and refined flavor.
- All of the eggplants we have here are from my garden.
- Aside from ‘Nubia’, we also brought ‘Nadia’, ‘Orient Charm’, ‘Barbarella’ and ‘Udulmalpet’. It is so rewarding to cook and eat the vegetables we’ve grown.
- And, with our Facebook LIVE shows, it’s so easy to show you, up close on our iPhone camera, all the different kinds of vegetables we’ve grown this summer.
- Our most recent harvest also included these peppers and beans. I bring lots of vegetables into the office to share with the staff.
- I also brought in all these beautiful artichokes. We have so many artichokes this year!
- And here are some red, white, and yellow onions – all from my garden.
- The ‘Barbarella’ eggplant is a globe shaped variety. ‘Nadia’ is the more traditional looking eggplant, and the Asian eggplants are long and slender.
- The ‘Udulmalpet’ eggplant is an Indian variety, named after a village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. These ripen from deep purple to golden yellow, and the flesh is firm and sweet.
- I am cutting the eggplant into quarter-inch pieces. They don’t need anything else before they’re cooked – no salt, no pepper, no oil. This recipe is so easy.
- The blistered eggplant will be the base for our salad. The rest of the salad includes olives, cheese, tomatoes, parsley, salt, pepper and olive oil.
- We placed the eggplant onto a wire rack and broiled it for about 10 to 12 minutes.
- Broil until every piece browns on the top side – they look so pretty out of the oven. Then, flip and broil the other side.
- Here in the northeast, this summer has been very, very hot – perfect for tomatoes. I grow a lot of tomatoes. We have about 100-plants in my garden.
- And, we use a lot of different seeds, but choose the ones that are best for where you live.
- We sliced an assortment of tomatoes in different colors for our salad.
- This recipe calls for one of three cheeses – feta, burrata, or mozzarella, and some olives. When buying fresh mozzarella or feta, store it in cold water in a covered container in the fridge.
- To finish, add some fresh cut parsley.
- Blistered eggplant with tomatoes, olives and feta cheese – so easy! If you missed our Facebook LIVE chat, click on the link above. And, don’t forget to pre-order “Martha Stewart’s Vegetables”. http://www.marthastewart.com/1504185/martha-stewarts-vegetables-new-cookbook