How to cook eggplant

How to cook eggplant has been streamlined so that you can prepare this marvelous vegetable in just half an hour.

The recipe below is especially for those who hate taking statins but love their eggs, butter and cream. Yes, you can have your cake and eat it; if you regularly consume foods like these.

Wherever the Indian tribes from the subcontinent have made a home for themselves in the diaspora, like South Africa it is known as a brinjal; and in Europe, an aubergine. An eggplant by any other name would taste just as sweet.

Eggs Florentine and ratatouille.

Chopping the onions might seem obvious but there is an art to doing it quickly and efficiently so the sulphurous-acid vapours don't burn the eyes.

• Does allicin in onions fight infections?
  

Chop the onion in half lengthways from top to bottom. Cut off the tip, peel but retain the root-end.

Cut slices longitudinally, almost down to the chopping-board.

Now cross-cut and finally remove the root end. Voilà, it is so simple.

A tomato a day

A tomato a day keeps the urologist at bay. Dinkum, men who eat them daily have half the rate of the most nasty and prevalent tumours of the prostate gland. It all has to do with a phytonutrient called a lycopene; the suggestion is that when cooked it is more readily absorbed in the intestine, especially with a little extra-fat.

It belongs to a group of phytonutrients called carotenoids that are antioxidants, protecting us against the dangerous effects of free-radicals. It is best enjoyed in pink and red foods like tomatoes and watermelons; and papaya too, rather than from supplements^[1].

Vitamin D too slows cellular aging; more sunshine, with a hat on.

There is plenty of research showing that those who do not get adequate carotenoids like lycopene and lutein from their food are more prone to a host of serious conditions like macular-degeneration and Lou Gehrig's disease too; but larger studies are needed to prove that conclusively.

Beta-carotene is also called vitamin A; a deficiency causes the death of 20 children every single day in South Africa. These phytonutrients are that important.

In short eat more tomatoes and dark-green leafy vegetables, the richest sources; they partner so well with eggplant.

How to cook eggplant

How to cook eggplant is a simple, basic ratatouille recipe. It is one small part of getting your cholesterol in shape by normal means without the use of statins.

The taste may need to be acquired but faced with the threat of impotence from statins the tongue is easily trained to love eggplant.

How to cook eggs Florentine

Ratatouille is not a complete meal; it is low in protein. In the photo above I have shown it alongside Eggs Florentine, another of our favourite dishes poached on a bed of spinach.

More conventional ratatouille

The more conventional way to cook ratatouille is to add zucchini and a sweet-pepper. Obviously that is fine but you do have to simmer it rather longer to drive off the extra moisture.

Personally I love bell-peppers, though not cooked for some reason; so I would rather use some chili.

Scientists are still trying to find out what is the active ingredient in eggplant that helps to lower cholesterol. Then it will not be long before you will be inundated with adverts to buy it as an expensive supplement. Personally I'm a disciple of Hippocrates, the father of the Western healing-sciences; let your food be your medicine.

The other important foods that lower cholesterol are by the way unrefined rolled-oats, chickpeas and apples; all salads, vegetables and fruit too. Eat them regularly and you need have no fear of eggs, butter or cream.

Fried eggplant

This fried eggplant recipe incidentally is my favourite way to enjoy a brinjal. Dipped in a batter it is simply delicious; and just as quick to prepare and cook. Are you anxious about gluten? Don't be.

• A strict and lifelong gluten-free diet may not necessary.
  

Another way to increase the protein, of course is a more traditional Eggplant Parmesan.

Olive oil

Olive oil is such an important part of Mediterranean cooking. It's expensive but look upon it as medicine; it really does keep the doctor away.

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