Eggplant Tomato Combo

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z2 (ZReduction) recipe. This eggplant tomato combo can be eaten as a side dish or as a spread. When I make an antipasti tray for an appetizer course, I’ll sometimes include this as a dip or spread for crackers. As with any dip, I take my portion of dip and put it on my plate so I can use my chip more than once. This keeps my carbohydrate consumption much lower. Or I just eat it with a fork.

It’s the roasting of the eggplant that is the flavor secret in this recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 1 Chinese eggplant (Look for this long, skinny eggplant. DO NOT use a regular American globe eggplant in this dish. Most grocery stores now carry the Chinese eggplant. It’s much easier to cook with and no seeds to be removed.)
  • 1 pint of cherry tomatoes
  • 2 tsp of minced garlic
  • sea salt

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the ends off of the eggplant. Slice it into very thin slices. I use my mandolin to make the thin slices. You do not need to peel this type of eggplant. The skin is very thin and flavorful.

Lightly spray a cookie sheet and arrange the eggplant slices on the sheet. Bake in your oven until the slices begin to brown the edges. Even if some of them get completely browned that’s okay. That gives your final product some of the rustic flavor. This will take about 10 minutes.

Put the cherry tomatoes in an oven proof pan. Spray lightly with olive oil spray and put them in the oven at the same time you are toasting the eggplant. You want the cherry tomatoes to blister and begin breaking down. They will also get a bit of a browning tinge on them. That’s good. This will take more like 20 minutes.

When both items are cooked, just mix them in a bowl. Add the garlic and then grated sea salt (to your taste). If the tomatoes are not broken down you can sort of chop at them with a fork to get them to a consistency you like.

This combo can be eaten warm or room temperature. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.  I served this to some Italian ladies at a gathering and they loved it.  They ate this more than anything else on the antipasti platter. It was a big success.

Enjoy!

Cheers,