Eggplant Gratin with Cold Eggplant Soup 茄子のグラタンと冷製スープ

These are other eggplant dishes I made from Asian eggplant from Wee. Each dish used one eggplant so in total I used two of the 4 eggplants I bought. The first dish which is “eggplant au-gratin with meat sauce”  was perfect since it would use up a number of ingredients I had on hand. I had the marinara sauce I made some time ago but kept from going bad by reheating it. I also had 1/4 lb of ground chicken to use. I also had some skinned Campari tomatoes which were getting old. All these would be used in this dish (shown in the picture below on the left). Under the melting cheese and the meat sauce are the chunks of eggplant. This was a really good combination.  The second dish was cold eggplant soup which again was perfect since we like cold soup for lunch (shown in the picture on the right). So this was a lunch we had one day.

The hot eggplant au-gratin went well with the cold eggplant soup. There is not really a recipe since it was mostly left-over control.

Directions for the eggplant au-gratin:
I cut up the skinned Campari tomatoes (3 or 4) cooked with minced garlic in olive oil and seasoned it with salt, pepper, dried oregano and basil. I then added the ground chicken and cooked it completely. Finally, I added the left-over marinara sauce to heat through.

I used one Asian eggplant. I peeled off stripes of the skin, (so the eggplant wouldn’t explode while being cooked in the microwave), placed it in a silicon container and microwaved it for 2-3 minutes or until it became soft and cooked through. I cut it into bit-size chunks (#1), layered it with the meat sauce (#2), put the grated cheeses on top (we used sharp cheddar and smoked gouda) and baked at 350F toaster oven for 30 minutes (#4).

Directions for cold eggplant soup is also not really a recipe (made two small servings)
One Asian eggplant, stem end removed and peeled. Cut in half lengthwise and then cut into thin half moon. I placed the eggplant and chicken broth (I used Swanson brand low salt low fat) in a pan just enough to completely cover the eggplant then cooked it for 10-15 minutes. I added salt and pureed it using the immersion blender.

I served it chilled and diluted slightly with cold milk (or cream to your liking).

Both are pretty simple and good dishes. The eggplant added a meat-like texture and umami taste to the au-gratin that blended with the ground chicken in the tomato meat sauce. And what wouldn’t taste good topped with a mixture of toasted cheese? The soup was very subtle but went well with its cousin eggplant in the au-gratin. This was a perfect combo for our lunch.