Suggested by Alison - Ratatouille

Ratatouille at Cooking for Engineers

Eggplant Parmesan, by Allison

1eggplant
a couple cups tomato sauce like for pasta (I made my own, if you use jarred sauce, go ahead and use that)
4 oz mozzarella, grated
some fresh basil
2 oz Parmesan, grated
salt and pepper

Slice the eggplant, salt the slices and let them sit for half an hour or so. Then wipe them off and spray both sides with oil. Shove them under the broiler for 5 minutes, then flip and broil for another 5 minutes. Salt and pepper them to taste.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put about a third of the sauce in a casserole dish, layer half the eggplant on top, cover with the mozzarella, basil leaves, and Parmesan, the rest of the eggplant, and then the rest of the tomato sauce. Cook for half an hour.

Baigan Bhartha by Heather

Here's the eggplant recipe I mentioned. DH grew up eating it and loves this recipe.

1 pound eggplant
1 1/2 TBS ghee or oil
2 medium sized onions, finely chopped
2 medium sized tomatoes, finely chopped
2 green chilies, seeded and chopped
salt to taste
2 1/2 tsp. finely chopped cilantro

Masala:
1 1/2 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp. cumin powder
1 tsp cayenne1
/2 tsp garam masala

Rub the eggplant with a little oil and blacken the skins over the grill or broil in oven.
Peel and chop the flesh coarsley. Heat the ghee and saute the onions until light brown. Add masala ingredients and cook for one minute. Add tomatoes and green chilies and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add eggplant and salt and saute until dry. Serve garnished with chopped cilantro leaves.**I don't use green chilies or cayenne, I use crushed red pepper flakes (super hot ones from an Indian grocer) and Indian (super hot) chili powder and just eyeball it. Mine always comes out hotter than intended and sometimes I can't even eat it. If you're not crazy about spice, I would be pretty conservative compared to this recipe.

Grilled Eggplant, from Stephanie

I heart eggplant. It's great grilled too.

Wash, cut off ends, peel, slice into 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices and spread out on a pan.

Sprinkle with salt and ignore for a while.

Dab off liquid, flip and salt.

Ignore, dab, apply italian dressing, ignore, grill.

MMMMMMMM.

Meditteranean chicken with eggplant and spaghetti squash from Simcha

Mediterranean chicken with Eggplant
3 eggplants, peeled and diced
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - diced
1 onion, diced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

1. Place eggplant in a big pot of lightly salted water and soak for 30 minutes (this will improve the taste; they will leave a brown color in the pot).
2. Remove eggplant from pot and brush lightly with olive oil. Saute until lightly browned and place in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Set aside.
3. Saute diced chicken and onion in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in tomato paste and water, cover skillet, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
5. Pour chicken/tomato mixture over eggplant. Season with oregano, salt and pepper and cover with aluminum foil. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

**This is also good with a layer of ricotta between eggplant and chicken!

For the spaghetti squash, I just cut it in half, scoop out the sides and then microwave until strands are tender. Then I just stir in some olive oil and garlic powder (or roasted garlic, if I thought to make it ahead of time LOL).