After a few too many failed attempts, we have stumbled onto the best method for roasting eggplant. This is my family’s favorite way to cook eggplant! Our recipe below for roasted eggplant works with a simple seasoning of oil, salt, and pepper, but if you’d like to spice things up, we highly recommend our spice blend (shared below). It’s super flavorful.
Key Ingredients
Eggplant: When you are shopping for eggplant, look for it to have smooth and shiny skin and feel heavy for its size. It should also feel slightly firm, not really hard or very soft, and the stem end should be green and free of mold. Best spice blend: For this spice blend, we pulled some of our favorite spices out of our spice cabinet. It’s toasty, savory, and earthy. This mix works beautifully with roasted eggplant and combines black pepper, fennel, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and clove. Depending on what you have on hand, use whole spices or ground. If you use whole spices, grind them using a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.
Three Tips For the Best Roasted Eggplant
If you keep these three tips in mind, you will be an eggplant roasting genius! With our easy eggplant recipe, the eggplant is tender in the middle and wonderfully caramelized on the outside.
How to Serve Roasted Eggplant
I’ll be honest, when we make this roasted eggplant with the spice blend I just mentioned, the eggplant rarely makes it to the plate. Adam, our son, and I go crazy for it. When we do manage to hold off on eating it straight off of the pan, here’s what we love to serve it with:
I love it tossed on top of this veggie-packed pasta or even with a creamier sauce like this fettucine alfredo Over rice with some tahini sauce spooned on top Piled onto toast or served with a slice of homemade foccacia bread With homemade labneh, a Middle Eastern yogurt cheese. In flatbread like or no-yeast flatbread or this homemade pita.
More Eggplant Recipes
We roast eggplants whole in this baba ganoush recipe and then mash the roasted flesh with tahini, garlic, and spices. It’s delicious. We also roast our eggplant when making eggplant parmesan. Try our simplified recipe with a simple homemade sauce, roasted eggplant slices, and cheese. For a recipe for grilled eggplant, see our eggplant Napoleon with grilled eggplant, tomatoes, and mozzarella. We also have many roasted vegetable recipes like our crispy roasted potatoes, roasted broccolini with herbs, and these honey roasted carrots with tahini sauce. When choosing eggplants, look for them to have shiny skin, feel heavy for their size, be slightly firm, and have a green stem. 1 ½ tablespoons oil, like olive oil or avocado oil 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt 1 ¼ teaspoon ground fennel or 1 teaspoon fennel seeds 1 ¼ teaspoon ground cumin or 1 teaspoon cumin seeds 1 ¼ ground coriander or 1 teaspoon coriander seeds 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves or 1 whole clove Fresh mint, serving, optional 2For cubed eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes. For eggplant slices, slice into 1-inch-thick slices. Cutting the eggplant into thicker pieces makes sure that the inside turns tender and the outside caramelizes. 3Add eggplant to a large bowl and toss with 1/2 teaspoon of fine sea salt and 1 ½ tablespoons oil. If you are adding the spice blend, scatter it over the eggplant and toss well. (It will seem like a lot of spice mix, but eggplant loves to be generously spiced.) 4When the eggplant is well coated with the oil, tumble it onto the prepared baking sheet and spread out so that they are not touching. 5Roast eggplant for 20 minutes, stir, and then roast for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the eggplant is tender and caramelized. If the eggplant looks dry while in the oven, toss it with a little more oil (1/2 tablespoon or so). 6Serve or store in an airtight container for up to 4 days. If you have some, serve with fresh mint scattered on top.
