There are a few flavor matches made in heaven: peanut butter & jelly, red wine & dark chocolate and eggplant & thai basil. Seriously, eggplant and thai basil should get matching couples tattoos, they’re like soul mates, bffs, every love song was actually written about them. Summers are made for celebrating their love. Last year I was obsessed with this ratatouille with eggplant and thai basil. I made it at least once a week. This year it’s all about the garlicky yogurt sauce that gets jam-packed with thai basil then smothered over smokey, grilled eggplant. I bet you didn’t know that this blog exists only for the purpose of creating enough eggplant/thai basil dishes to fill an entire section with their own tab. Ok, all joking aside this stuff is good. Fire up the grill and enjoy these last few weeks of summer cooking, my friends!
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Step 1
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Step 2
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Step 3
Ingredients for the Grilled Eggplant
5 or so medium Chinese eggplant
1 teaspoon miso paste
olive oil for coating about 1 tablespoon
Ingredients for the Thai Basil Sauce
2/3 cup plain greek yogurt
1 cup thai basil leaves
2 garlic cloves
juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt, more to taste
fresh pepper
For Serving
1/2 cup of Freekeh
2 shallots, fried
thai basil leaves for garnish
Directions
Cook the freekeh as directed. To make the sauce place all the ingredients into your food processor and blend. To prep the eggplant for grilling: score it (as shown above) and massage the olive oil and miso into the cracks. Place on a hot grill for about 3 to 5 minutes per side, or until light brown and tender. For the fried shallots: thinly slice and lightly dust with flour and a pinch of salt. Fry in a bit of high heat oil until brown and fragrant. Assemble dish as shown.