Roasted eggplant caviar 

Who doesn’t love blue ones – as eggplants are affectionately called in the south. How many delicious things you can cook from them! One dish of imambayaldy is worth something. Just like that, the imam will not faint. The trouble is that the season for consuming fresh eggplant is not too long – only 3-4 months. And so I want to eat this vegetable in the winter. To extend the period of its consumption, you can make preparations for the winter. But first, let’s figure out how eggplant is useful and how it affects health.

The benefits of eggplant

Eggplant cannot boast of a large amount of vitamins in its composition. A little, only about 5% of vitamin C, a small amount of B vitamins, retinol, a little bit of nicotinic acid and vitamin E, folic acid. The main benefit of eggplant is different – they contain a lot of trace elements, including potassium, as well as fiber. And this is with a low calorie content, only 23 kilocalories per 100 g. This vegetable is useful for intestinal diseases, improves heart function, and helps to cope with atherosclerosis. And, of course, it is suitable for those who want to lose weight.

How to choose the right eggplant

In order for eggplants to bring only benefits, you need to choose them correctly.

Therefore, you need to cook only young fruits in the stage of technical maturity. It is easy to distinguish them – by a bright saturated color and a light green stalk. The fruits should be firm and medium in size.

When a good and benign vegetable is selected, you can start cooking it. Many people love fried eggplant, but with this method of preparation, all the useful properties of the vegetable are lost. To save them, the vegetable should be steamed or baked. You can also make winter preparations from baked eggplants, for example, caviar. Roasted eggplant caviar for the winter will retain all the beneficial properties of this valuable vegetable.

How to cook baked eggplant caviar

This recipe has several variations. Let’s consider each separately.

Recipe 1

The recipe is simple, but it takes a lot of time to prepare. Usually, a fully finished product can be obtained in 3,5-4 hours. For caviar you will need the following products:

• 2 kg eggplant;
• 1,5 kg of red tomatoes;
• 1 kg red bell pepper;
• 600 g of onions;
• 700 g carrots;
• 3 capsicums. If spicy dishes are contraindicated for you, then you can do without them;
• vegetable oil – no more than 180 ml;
• salt, which is added to taste.

Yield – 4 jars with a volume of 700 g.

Cooking steps with a photo:

All vegetables should be washed well in running water. Eggplant stems do not need to be cut off. We clean the onions and carrots and wash them again. We free the peppers from the stalk and seeds and wash again.

To prepare caviar according to this recipe, eggplants are baked. In an oven heated to 200 degrees, place a dry baking sheet with eggplant.

Roasting time about 40 min. Turn the blue ones over a few times to bake evenly.

While the eggplants are cooking, let’s take care of other vegetables. The onion should be cut into small cubes.

Grate carrots or cut into thin sticks.

Tomatoes are also cut into cubes, like sweet peppers.

Ready eggplant should be removed from the oven and cool slightly.

Now we cut each eggplant lengthwise into four parts, without cutting a little to the end, and put it vertically in a colander.

In a thick-walled bowl, saute the onion by adding vegetable oil. Onions should not be browned. After adding the carrots, simmer under the lid until the carrots are soft. This usually happens after 15 minutes.

Now add the tomatoes and simmer, now without a lid, until they become soft. Stir the vegetable mixture from time to time.

Add sweet pepper to the vegetable mixture, simmer for another quarter of an hour under the lid until the pepper is soft.

While the vegetable mixture is stewing, chop the peeled eggplants with a knife or meat grinder and add them to the prepared vegetables. The mixture must be mixed well and simmer under the lid for an hour. Salt and chopped capsicum are added at the end of the stew.

We wash the glass jars well, dry and roast in the oven. Lids should be rinsed and boiled.

As soon as the caviar is ready, it is immediately laid out in jars and rolled up. Banks are wrapped in newspapers and a blanket for a couple of days.

Recipe 2

This recipe differs from the previous one in that very little vegetable oil is added to caviar. Therefore, baked eggplant caviar will be less high-calorie. The peculiarity of this recipe is that all vegetables, except for onions, are first baked, which allows them to preserve their taste and benefits.

To prepare caviar you will need:

• 6 medium-sized eggplant;
• 2 large sweet peppers;
• 10 small tomatoes;
• 2 bulbs;
• 4 clove of garlic;
• a bunch of your favorite greens;
• pepper and non-iodized salt to taste.

Cooking steps with photos

• My eggplant, peppers and tomatoes. We prick them lightly and put them in the oven, placing them in a dry baking sheet. The temperature in the oven is about 200 degrees. Roasting time approximately 40 minutes. Turn vegetables over several times to cook better. Bake eggplant until soft.

  

• While the vegetables are baking, we pass the onion, cut into small cubes, adding all the vegetable oil.

  

• Remove cooked vegetables from oven and cool slightly. It is easiest to peel vegetables while they are warm.
• Peeled vegetables should be finely chopped. Further preparation depends on whether the caviar will be served immediately or will become a preparation for the winter.
• In the first case, it is enough to mix the components, add salt, pepper, finely chopped greens and garlic passed through a garlic press. Further, according to the recipe, the caviar should stand for several hours in the refrigerator so that the vegetables are well saturated with garlic. Such caviar is especially tasty with croutons of white or black bread.
• If you plan to make preparations for the winter, the mixed vegetables should be stewed under a lid over low heat for about half an hour. Stir from time to time. Add pepper and salt, finely chopped greens, season with garlic pressed through a press. Simmer for another 5-10 minutes and immediately decompose into sterile jars. Lids should also be sterilized. Roll up immediately. Turn over and wrap for a day with a blanket. Eggplant caviar from baked vegetables is ready.

Conclusion

Vegetables harvested for the winter not only diversify the menu, but also enrich it with useful substances.