Eggplants ~ right from the Farmer’s Market

When Saturday is finally here I am the happiest. We can get up as early or as late as we wish to. Plus there is a local farmers market that I love and it’s ready and set up bright and early at 7am until 1pm. Lucky enough my girls are big foodies too and they just love the words Winter Park Farmers Market!

One of the items I found on a recent visit was this beautiful eggplant babies. They were so cute and tiny that I just had to buy them. Well, I didn’t have to buy them, but I just couldn’t leave them there…right?

After I got home with the eggplants in hand I started brainstorming on what to make with them. A lasagna came to mind, but then again, they were so tiny how in the world could I make a lasagna with them?

But, I just had to try. My advice is that if you are going to make an eggplant lasagna, please do yourself a favor and go and get the bigger eggplants you can find. It was a pain to slice this little puppies up just right for the eggplant lasagna.

For the lasagna, prepare the meat as you would when making your favorite lasagna with the substitution of the pasta with the eggplant. The eggplant has to be sliced (to the thickness of your choice, I prefer a medium proportion eggplant slice). Prepare a set up with a dip dish for a couple of bitten eggs (I season the eggs with some salt and pepper) and another dip dish with some bread crumbs (you can add some Parmesan cheese to the crumbs).  Dip each eggplant slice into the bitten egg mixture and then into the bread crumbs. The last step is to fry into some oil and keep an eye on it, they tend to fry up pretty quickly, finally transfer into a plate with some paper towel to soak up some of the grease.

Now, what else could I do with my pretty and small size eggplants? Here is an idea!

Eggplant fried chips. For these dish I sliced the eggplants a bit thinner than for the eggplant lasagna. They were salty and crunchy, just perfect!

Do as you did for the eggplant lasagna, pass the eggplant slices through the egg mixture and the bread crumbs mixture and fry away! Transfer into a dish with some paper towel to soak up some of the grease. Then, enjoy!

Hoping to have inspired you to hit your local Farmer’s Market and buy locally grown veggies. Make some Eggplant Chips or an ambitious Eggplant Lasagna.