In the summer, at the height of the season for fresh vegetables, you want to eat as much of them as possible and save them for the cold season. Preparations made from tomatoes and cucumbers, peppers, and zucchini are popular, but eggplants are bypassed. From these fruits you can easily prepare a fragrant and delicious winter snack. Roll up a couple of cans of salted eggplant, and you will always have something to please unexpected guests.
- Eggplant. Pros and cons of vegetables
- Preparing the main ingredients for pickling
- Recipes for pickling eggplants at home
- Classic recipe with garlic in jars
- With tarragon and horseradish
- Stuffed with garlic in a pan
- Salt in Georgian
- Salting in Azerbaijani style
- Pickling with carrots
- With mushroom flavor
- A way to salt under pressure
- How to preserve pickling
Eggplant. Pros and cons of vegetables
This vegetable contains many vitamins, beneficial micro- and macroelements, and fiber. Remember that only heat-treated fruits are eaten. Eggplants that are too old and unripe contain a lot of toxic substance - solanine, it completely disappears when heated, but such eggplants can taste bitter. It is better to immediately select fresh, ripe, elastic specimens without external damage.
Like all vegetables, they are low in calories and fat, stimulate the gastrointestinal tract and are recommended for people watching their weight. On the other hand, they should not be consumed if you have diseases of the digestive system.
Thanks to its rich vitamin and mineral composition, eggplants have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system and help control the level of bad cholesterol and iron in the blood.
Preparing the main ingredients for pickling
Eggplants go well with other vegetables - carrots, tomatoes, sweet peppers, spices and herbs. Garlic, cilantro, and basil are added to fresh and salted fruits.
To prepare, the fruits are cut into cubes or rings, small ones are salted whole, even with the stalks, stuffed with herbs, onions and carrots; large or uneven ones are good for making a salad.
In most recipes for searing, they are first blanched in salted water to get rid of the bitter taste, then placed under weight and the excess liquid is squeezed out.
Recipes for pickling eggplants at home
There are different options for preparing pickles of these purple fruits, so you need to choose based on your taste preferences and free time.So, it’s quicker and easier to pickle cubes or whole vegetables than stuffed ones or chopped ones for salad.
Classic recipe with garlic in jars
The basic version of pickling, simple and understandable for inexperienced cooks:
- 4 kg eggplants;
- 1 liter of filtered water;
- 3 liters of water for boiling;
- 120 g salt for brine + 4 tbsp. l.;
- 20 cloves of garlic;
- Bay leaf;
- dill umbrellas.
How to cook:
- Prepare the eggplants. Cut large fruits into several parts, cut small ones along a couple of centimeters. Rub with salt.
- Pour 3 liters of water into the pan and add salt. When it starts to boil, place the fruits there and boil for 7-10 minutes. Make sure that they do not cook, but only become softer. Take it out and rinse it with cold water.
- Place the eggplants under pressure, for example, put them on a tray, put another board and a large bowl of water on it. Let it sit for at least 3 hours; you can leave it overnight.
- Chop the garlic with a knife. Place bay leaf, dill in pre-sterilized jars, then alternate layers of eggplant and garlic.
- Boil 800 ml of clean water with 4 tbsp. l. salt, pour the resulting solution over the vegetables. Roll up the jars, cover with a blanket and leave until cool.
With tarragon and horseradish
An unusual flavor combination, also suitable for filling salted eggplants. This preservation is prepared in the same way as the classic recipe, only the composition of spices changes. For 1 kg of eggplant, take 25-30 g of salt, 1 head of garlic, 1 small horseradish root, a bunch of tarragon (tarragon) about 50 g.
After pressing, rub the vegetables with grated garlic and horseradish, and put the rest of the herbs in jars.
Stuffed with garlic in a pan
You can put a filling of herbs and spices inside each fruit so that they are more saturated with the spicy aroma. This dish is a good option for a ready-made snack for the holiday table.
- 3 kg eggplants;
- 10 cloves of garlic;
- any fresh herbs to your taste (about 200 g in total);
- 80 g salt + a couple of tablespoons for cooking;
- 1.5 liters of drinking water.
How to cook:
- Wash, dry the fruits, cut off the stalks. Cut lengthwise to 2/3 of the height of the vegetable.
- Place eggplants in a saucepan, fill with water, add a tablespoon of salt for each liter of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Remove the fruits, place them under pressure and leave for several hours.
- Make the filling from crushed garlic and chopped herbs. Purple basil works well here. Optionally add a couple of handfuls of crushed nuts (walnuts, cashews). Salt and pepper.
- Place the filling inside each vegetable and tie it tightly with thread.
- Place them in a large enamel container to accommodate the vegetables and brine. To prepare it, boil 1.5 liters of drinking water and 80-90 g of salt, pour over the eggplants. Cover with gauze cloth and apply pressure.
- Leave the workpiece in a room at a temperature of 18 to 25 degrees for 2-5 days, then store it in the refrigerator, basement, niche under the window (t° 2 degrees), or put it in jars, fill it with boiled solution again and roll it up.
Salt in Georgian
Vegetables are prepared in brine with the addition of vinegar, so it would be more correct to call them pickled. Choose smooth, medium-sized specimens.
- 3 kg eggplants;
- 180 ml vinegar 6%;
- 1.5 cups crushed walnuts;
- 2 heads of garlic;
- 100 g salt;
- 3 tbsp. l. Sahara;
- cilantro, dill to taste.
How to cook:
- Cut clean fruits into two parts lengthwise. Remove the seeds.
- Place vegetables, 1.5 liters of water in a saucepan, add salt (40 g). Cook for 3-5 minutes after boiling.
- Take out the halves, rinse with cold water, and place under pressure for 3-4 hours.
- For the filling, chop the greens and combine with walnuts.
- Stuff the eggplants and carefully place them in prepared jars.
- For the marinade, boil 1 liter of water with the remaining salt and sugar, add vinegar, remove from heat.
- Immediately pour the marinade into the jars, roll up, leave to cool, wrapped in a blanket or blanket.
Salting in Azerbaijani style
- 2 kg of eggplants;
- a large bunch of cilantro;
- large head of garlic;
- 700 g carrots;
- olive oil, odorless;
- 4 tbsp. l. vinegar 9%;
- salt, sugar.
How to cook:
- Cut the eggplants into cubes, grate the carrots. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the vegetables, covered, until fully cooked.
- Peel the garlic and chop it in a crusher or with a knife. Finely chop the cilantro. Mix the greens with vegetables, add a pinch of sugar, salt, and, if desired, black pepper or a mixture of peppers.
- Place the workpiece in sterilized 0.5 liter jars, pour 2 tbsp into each. l. vinegar. Cover with lids (without rolling up), place on the bottom of a saucepan or bowl of boiling water. Its level should reach 2-3 cm from the top of the cans. Warm over low heat for 25 minutes, then seal the jars.
Pickling with carrots
You can pickle eggplants by stuffing them with vegetables, nuts, and herbs. This is not done quickly, but it looks unusual and impressive on the table.
- 4 kg eggplants;
- 1 kg carrots;
- 2 heads of garlic;
- 150 g salt;
- dill, cilantro, celery to taste.
- How to cook:
- Cut clean eggplants lengthwise into two parts and scoop out the seeds with a spoon.
- Place the halves in a saucepan, add 2 liters of water, salt, and put on fire. After boiling, cook for 7-10 minutes.
- Drain the water, rinse the boiled vegetables with cold water and place under pressure for 3 hours.
- Wash, dry and finely chop the greens. Grate the carrots, mix with crushed garlic, salt and pepper.
- After 3 hours, remove the oppression, stuff the halves with carrots and tie them together with 2 threads.
- For the brine, bring 2 liters of drinking water and 60 g of salt to a boil. Place the eggplants in a glass or enamel container, alternating layers with herbs. Fill with brine, set pressure.
- The pickling should stand at room temperature for 2-3 days. Afterwards, the eggplants can be eaten, stored in the refrigerator or rolled up for the winter.
With mushroom flavor
Salted eggplants with slight nuances when cooked will look like wild mushrooms. The step-by-step recipe is similar to the first, classic one, however:
- Remove the skin from the fruit with a sharp knife, cut into pieces of 2 cm or less.
- Proportions of ingredients per kilogram of eggplant – 150 g dill, 4 cloves of garlic, 25-30 g salt.
- You can pickle them in jars, under pressure, or prepare a marinade from the Georgian Pickles recipe. The output will be a preparation with the taste of salted or pickled mushrooms.
A way to salt under pressure
Traditionally, pickles were infused in large wooden barrels under pressure. In modern conditions, it is easier to prepare them immediately in jars, but it will be much more interesting to pickle them under weight, for example, in a large enamel pan.
You can make eggplants under pressure according to the classic recipe or stuffed with any set of spices and herbs. Instead of jars, prepared vegetables are placed in a container for pickling, covered with cotton cloth or gauze, a plate (board) is placed on top, and pressure is placed on it.
The pickle sits under pressure for 2-4 days at room temperature, if the house is warmer, then less, until the brine becomes cloudy. Then you need to move the workpiece to the refrigerator or any room with an air temperature of 2-3 degrees. After a week, eggplants can be eaten.
How to preserve pickling
After boiling, sterilized pickles are stored in glass jars at room temperature (not higher than 22 degrees). The main thing is that they should not be exposed to direct light. Vegetables cooked under pressure in enamel dishes must be stored in the refrigerator. It is recommended to use such dishes until the next harvest, that is, within a year.
To prevent the seams from spoiling ahead of time, ensure that the products and utensils you use are fresh and clean!