How Toddler Eggplant Gets Made–And Eaten
It’s not complicated: sometimes turning nothing into something–particularly when trying to get your kid to each vegetables–is as simple as making it crispy or crunchy. Yes, just stuff it–stuff anything–into carbs. We do it for chicken salad; empanadas, egg rolls, and every other stuffed pastry are good vehicles for just about anything, too.
Case in point: eggplant. Breading and burying it in cheese and tomato sauce is surely well-known to you; the Chinese method of frying it as logs and covering it in a tangy sauce is a favorite, too. But both of these methods take the stance and approach that eggplant is best consumed as anything but a vegetable; should you actually want your child to taste the purple guy as intended–and you can’t bear to make baba ghanoush, good as our recipe is, yet again–you’ll have to negotiate two challenges: 1) eggplant gets soft and mushy; 2) eggplant is no “looker” when soft and mushy. Our solution: use puff pastry as a shell to hold it, letting the crackly, buttery exterior heighten the creamy and vegetal flavors within.
But maybe you want (or will want) the option to serve the eggplant without a tuxedo on–that’s where our recipe comes in. Drawing from an approach used in Moroccan, Turkish, and other cuisines of the Mediterranean, the eggplant is braised until basically a dip, enabling you to hide it inside dough if you want but also spread it on a pita or a cracker (or whatever flat carb your child may prefer) for an equally good time. One great recipe; two great ways to serve it–you can’t lose!
- 1 Eggplant (small or medium size should be plenty)
- 4 Roma Tomatoes (if using smaller cherry or grape tomatoes, triple the number used)
- minced Garlic
- Paprika
- Cumin
- Sumac (or zaatar)
- Sugar (optional)
- Dried Mint powder (Cilantro leaves work, too)
- Feta Cheese (or other crumbly cheese)
- 1 sheet Puff Pastry
- Cream Cheese
- Peel the eggplant, then chop into small cubes. Cut up the tomato so that the pith and seeds are discarded but the outer fruit and juice remains.
- Cover a large pan with a generous amount of olive oil and heat to Medium. Add in eggplant and tomato, stirring to mix together; season with the paprika, garlic, cumin, and a pinch or two of salt and pepper; if using, sprinkle a little sugar all over. Mix together, then reduce temperature to Medium Low, cover, and cook until the eggplant is very soft, roughly 25-30 minutes.
- Using a wooden spoon or spatula, press and smash the eggplant until its texture is more of dip or spread than a solid. Leave uncovered and raise the heat to Medium, cooking the eggplant until any remaining liquid in pan is gone (roughly five minutes).
- Top with mint and feta; if possible, refrigerate for at least thirty minutes before serving.
- Allow the eggplant to get to room temperature. While you do, thaw a sheet of puff pastry and spread open.
- Spread a line of cream cheese left-to-right roughly 1/3rd of the way up from the bottom of the sheet. Cover the line with a layer of the eggplant.
- Roll the sheet into a tight spiral, starting from the bottom and working your way over and through the eggplant; fasten the top edge to the rest of the sheet by wetting it with a bit of water or mixed egg. When finished, the puff pastry should look like a rather long burrito, with the eggplant in the center and surrounded by a few layers of dough.
- Cut vertical slices roughly 1” apart across the log, creating roughly 6-8 pinwheels.
- Lay these onto your air fryer center-side down, such that the eggplant at the center is touching the rack of the air fryer and facing out to the top and the outer layer of dough is on the side. Coat top with cooking spray.
- Cook for 7 minutes on 350.
- If desired, add a bit of shredded cheese and/or tomato sauce on top and cook for another minute to melt the cheese.
If serving on its own, add a small spread on top of pita or crackers and give to your child; feel free to put a layer of cream cheese or other soft cheese on there, too. If serving as a puff, cut in half and side with tomato sauce or ketchup, as needed.
You could conceivably use this approach with other vegetables, though only a few (say, leeks or carrots) will need a long slow cook like eggplant does. Just remember that in order to keep the puff pastry from getting soft and soggy, the inside can’t be wet or gloppy–in other words, you have to cook the liquid out of the vegetable before putting it inside the pastry. The cook time will be the same.
Brad (the Dad) is the founder and Chief Recipe Officer of New Dad's Kitchen. His own cooking/feeding journey started humbly during his son's infancy, preparing and managing his son's bottle intake in order to support his wife; it has since blossomed into a full-on passion to feed his child and family delicious and healthy meals that can satisfy both a toddler and his very tired parents.
