Remember how I was going to eat locally for a week?  Yea, well it didn’t really work out as planned.  I did get one thing out of my failed experiment: a pretty good (actually really yummy) eggplant dish.  I’ll be the first one to admit that eggplant can be a little boring, but I think this dish will make you enjoy eggplant more than you may have thought.  A lot of people don’t like cooking eggplant because it can be very bitter if it’s not cooked properly.  The trick to making sure it’s not bitter is to marinate the eggplant with salt before cooking.  OK, time to cook.

1. First things first. Cut eggplant into 1″ slices.  Brush (very generous amounts of) olive oil on both sides of eggplant slices.  Sprinkle salt on both sides.  Let the eggplant hang out with the salt and the olive oil for at least 30 minutes.  I wouldn’t bother it for about an hour.

2. Once eggplant is done marinating, heat up some oilve oil in a pan on medium heat.  Place cutlets in skillet and cook until brown and tender, about 5-6 minutes per side.

3. Chop basil (not too finely). Plate eggplant with basil, crumbled goat cheese.  Drizzle a little balsamic over eggplant, serve!

A good side dish for eggplant is cous cous-just follow the directions on the box.  One box of cous cous is about 6 servings, if not more.

When I was eating locally I wasn’t concerned with staying under $10 because I was determined to find out the real cost  cooking with as many local products as possible. So, let’s add it all up:

1 lb Eggplant:                   $1.07 (eggplant is in season right now, which means it’s local and cheap, cheap, cheap!!)

Basil:                                  $2.99/bunch (again, local)

Crumbled Goat Cheese: $2.49

1 Box Cous Cous:            $2.99 (ok, not local…)

If you take away the cous cous, the meal stays under $10.  Plus, the cheapest part of the whole meal is the eggplant!  You can make a lot of different dishes with eggplant (eggplant parmesan, grilled eggplant, baked eggplant….)

Easy. Local. Reasonable.  Go get yourself some eggplant and enjoy.

Happy Cooking!