10 Facts About Eggplants
Eggplants are a classic summer vegetable and should not be missing in your diet, because they are not only delicious, but also healthy!
Eggplants are still quite new to our gardens in our part of the world and suffer from the prejudice that they are bitter. There are still references to “debittering” in recipes, although newer varieties hardly contain any bitter substances. You can find out more about eggplant in today’s article.
Interesting facts about eggplants
Eggplants are not part of traditional cuisine in Germany. But they are also finding their way more and more into home gardens. If you haven’t used eggplants before, do some research on what you’re missing out on with them!
We have summarized some interesting aspects about eggplants for you, which should bring the vegetables a little closer to you – and ultimately also bring you to your plate:
The eggplant is an Asian
Aubergines originally come from Asia, from there they came to the Arab region and on to Spain. From Andalusia, the aubergine reached Italy in the 15th century and then spread mainly in Mediterranean cuisine.
She speaks Chinese a lot
If you look at where in the world a lot of this purple vegetable is grown, the probability that the vegetable in your shopping basket speaks Chinese is quite high: China produces the most in the world!
Your bitter substances are healthy!
Eggplants contain bitter substances and a little solanine, the slightly poisonous substance found in nightshade plants. It can also be found in potatoes or green parts of tomatoes. The more ripe the eggplant, the less solanine it contains.
These natural bitter substances act as natural appetite suppressants. They also work against bacteria, cancer and inflammation, and lower cholesterol.
Please do not store too long!
The eggplant does not like to be stored long after purchase, in the refrigerator the skin quickly becomes stained and the pulp turns brown. It is also particularly sensitive to ripening gas given off by other ripening fruits and vegetables.
It is best to store your eggplant separately from other fruits and vegetables and for no longer than two or three days.
You can peel them – but you don’t have to!
Eggplants do not have to be peeled, but if you have a sensitive stomach and, similar to paprika, have problems digesting the peel, you can peel the aubergine lengthways with a vegetable peeler. But this only works with very fresh eggplants.
Peeling works better if you use a method that is similar to the paprika peeling variant: To do this, place the entire aubergine in the oven for about 40 minutes at 200 degrees until the peel starts to bubble.
Then wrap the cooked eggplant in a damp towel until it’s cold enough to peel off the black skin fairly easily. The aubergine is now wonderfully aromatic and precooked for delicious recipes!
Colorful variety of colors
If you think eggplants are always purple, you are wrong because they come in many colors :
- Dark purple
- Pale purple
- White
- yellow
- Striped
- Spotted
You can buy and try different colored varieties, especially in health food stores and farm shops. Some are almost too pretty to eat!
Please only in summer!
The “egg fruits” are summer vegetables that can really only be harvested here in midsummer and even then mostly come from greenhouses or are grown under foil.
With us, the vegetables do not ripen until the beginning of August and can be harvested until the end of September, depending on the weather. Keep in mind that eggplants that you buy at other times of the year have a very long transport route behind them and are not recommended from an ecological point of view.
Buy shiny eggplants only
Vegetables are of the best quality when the outer skin is plump, wrinkle-free and has a strong color. Brown or yellow spots indicate that the eggplant is overripe and could be mushy inside.
If its skin is matt and has lost all its shine, it is superimposed and no longer really fresh. Please do not buy anymore, you will not enjoy it.
There’s nicotine in there!
Again and again the media haunted the news that the eggplant contains a particularly large amount of nicotine. We can reassure you: this message is clearly a so-called “newspaper duck”, so it is not correct.
It is true that there are vegetables that contain nicotine, including eggplant. However, the nicotine content is so low it’s not worth a fuss.
You now know more about eggplants and can enjoy them without the fear of consuming the nerve toxin nicotine in alarming amounts!
