This time I wanted to try something new. I still had fragrant basil and fresh parsley in the refrigerator, so I decided to urgently use the herbs while they were fresh. This is how we got eggplant rolls with mashed potatoes And aromatic herbs. Very delicious snack, which can be used as a lean dish if you exclude sour cream.
Ingredients:
- 2 large eggplants
- 4 potato tubers
- 1 tbsp. l. with a heap of sour cream
- 1 sprig green basil
- a few sprigs of parsley
- 1-2 cloves of garlic
- 100 ml olive oil
- salt to taste
How to make eggplant rolls with mashed potatoes:
First, wash and peel the potato tubers. Place them in a saucepan, cover with cold water and put on fire. When the water boils, reduce the heat and add a little salt. Boil the vegetables until soft, add water and cool the potatoes to room temperature.
Wash the eggplants and trim the stems. Cut the vegetables into slices 5 millimeters thick.
To prevent eggplant rolls with mashed potatoes from being too greasy, we will bake them in the oven. Transfer the vegetables to a wire rack. Brush the eggplant slices with olive oil on both sides and add a little salt to the vegetables.
Place the eggplants in the oven preheated to 200 degrees. We will bake them until soft for about 15 minutes, following the recipe for eggplant rolls with mashed potatoes. Then cool the vegetables to room temperature.
In a blender bowl, combine peeled garlic cloves, salt, chopped green basil and parsley leaves.
Grind everything until smooth, then add boiled potatoes cut into pieces and sour cream.
Grind all the ingredients in a blender until smooth, so that the filling for the eggplant rolls turns out tender.
Place a tablespoon of filling on the baked eggplant slice.
Carefully wrap the eggplant rolls with mashed potatoes and secure them with skewers or toothpicks. This way we will form all the rolls. Decorate them with basil or parsley leaves.
Eggplants, or, as they are popularly called, “little ones,” are firmly entrenched in our diet. But many mothers still doubt the benefits of this vegetable for their baby and ask: “Is it good for the child, does it cause allergies in children, at what age can it be given?” The answers to these questions are important for young parents, so we will try to answer them fully.
Eggplant can be classified as dietary products due to its low calorie content and high content useful substances. Doctors believe that eating this vegetable strengthens the cardiovascular system, has a positive effect on hematopoiesis, normalizes hemoglobin production and removes cholesterol from the body.
- If a child has tummy problems, then eggplant puree can solve them.
- Often in children under five years of age, hemoglobin decreases. To normalize it, you can offer your child stewed or baked vegetables.
- Eggplants are rich in phytonutrients - natural antioxidants that protect children's bodies from serious diseases, including cancer.
- A source of B vitamins, although it is inferior to sweet potatoes, it remains good option to enrich the child’s menu with thiamine, niacin, folic and pantothenic acids. The listed nutrients are involved in brain development, strengthening nervous system and many metabolic processes of a growing organism.
Ingredients of eggplant per 1 cup, diced raw vegetables presented in the table.
But besides those listed useful properties Eggplants have their downsides. The product contains solanine, which can cause harm to the child’s health: cause allergies, indigestion and even poisoning.
At what age should it be given?
So, when can you introduce your child to a new vegetable? Pediatricians recommend gradually introducing eggplant into the complementary foods of babies, starting from 8-10 months, in the composition vegetable soups or puree. By the age of one and a half years, the fruits themselves can be produced.
The peculiarity of eggplant is that it cannot be eaten raw, but before cooking it must be scalded with boiling water or kept salted on a flat dish for 40 minutes so that the bitterness disappears.
By introducing new foods to babies' complementary foods, we gradually accustom them to new taste sensations. Surely little gourmets will like the taste of this vegetable.
But when preparing eggplants for a child, you should avoid prolonged frying or deep-frying. It is recommended to bake, stew or make a soft puree from them.
Eggplants intended for baby food, you need to peel it and use only the pulp - it has a milder taste and is better digestible. And the hard skin can cause a baby to choke.
Harm
When deciding at what age to start giving your baby eggplants, mothers need to find out the opinion of a practicing pediatrician. Some doctors believe that a child under three years old should not eat these vegetables, since they contain solanine, a lot of heavy fiber and few calories. This is especially true for children with disorders of the digestive tract.
In other words, blue ones are ideal for low-calorie diets, but are not ideal for a child who needs calories to replenish energy reserves and actively grow.
To get rid of solanine, the fruits are soaked for a long time, but some of it may remain and cause poisoning or an allergic reaction in the baby.
Allergy
Eggplants can be classified as foods that can cause a severe allergic reaction in children due to the huge amount of minerals they contain. Any component can become an allergen, even vitamin C, which is so useful and necessary for humans. The main reasons: the child’s weakened immunity or hereditary predisposition.
When giving a child foods previously unfamiliar to him, you should carefully monitor the condition of his gastrointestinal tract, stool consistency and skin rashes.
The first symptoms of all types of allergies are the same:
- nausea, vomiting, diarrhea;
- skin redness, itching;
- tearfulness, cough, runny nose;
- chills and fever.
If such symptoms appear, you should immediately consult a doctor. If you discover an allergic reaction to eggplants, you should exclude them from your child’s diet, consult an allergist and do tests for possible allergens.
Sometimes the reaction is caused by excessive consumption of the product. In this case, you also need expert advice. It is possible that a small amount healthy vegetables will not harm the child's health.
In any case, you cannot joke with allergies, as they can lead to anaphylactic shock and death.
How to choose?
This vegetable may be present in the diet of children. But it is better to introduce young, slightly unripe eggplants into complementary foods. Overripe and spoiled fruits can cause poisoning due to high doses of solanine. The older and larger the specimens, the more of this substance they contain. In addition, young eggplants have smaller and more tender seeds - they will be easier for a child to handle.
Choose medium-sized vegetables with shiny, undamaged skin. When cutting an eggplant, pay attention to the color of the pulp and seeds: the flesh should be white or yellowish, and the seeds should be slightly darker than the pulp without an unpleasant odor. If the flesh is green, and the seeds are dark or quickly darken in the air, this is a sign of staleness and the beginning of rotting processes. It is better to get rid of such vegetables immediately.
How to cook?
Preparing eggplant for your baby is easy. It’s much more difficult to make your capricious person fall in love new vegetable. That’s why you don’t need to limit your culinary imagination to mono-component purees alone. Adding other healthy ingredients will enrich the dish with nutrients, as well as new shades of taste and aroma.
Due to their similar texture, eggplants pair well with white squash and zucchini. But this is not all, for example:
- green beans;
- pumpkin;
- brown rice;
- lentils;
- pasta.
Any of the listed products is appropriate in a child’s diet, provided that the baby has had time to try it earlier.
When starting to prepare eggplants, remember that it is not advisable to give children under one and a half years old food that has been stored in the refrigerator for more than 12 hours.
Vegetable stew
- To make the stew, use your child's favorite vegetables. In addition to eggplants, these usually include potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, cabbage and carrots.
- Peel them and cut into thin strips.
- Stir and place in a cauldron with a small amount of water.
- Simmer over low heat with added vegetable oil at least 40 minutes.
- Try not to add salt to your child’s food or use a minimal amount of salt without adding spices. If desired, the dish can be sprinkled with dill or other herbs.
With cheese in a steamer
- To prepare this dish you will need two young eggplants and two tomatoes, 20-30 g of hard cheese.
- Peel the vegetables and cut into slices, place tomato slices on the eggplant slices, sprinkle with grated cheese on top.
- Place the prepared dish in a steamer container and set the timer for 30 minutes.
This dish is not only tasty, but also very healthy, since it retains the maximum vitamins and minerals from raw vegetables.
With minced meat
The dish can be prepared in the oven, in a double boiler, or in a slow cooker.
- Take three young fruits, peel them, cut them in half and carefully remove the core with a spoon.
- Mix the pulp with minced meat, onion, add egg.
- Refill the eggplant halves with the prepared filling.
- Sprinkle generously with grated cheese.
- Bake for at least 30 minutes.
Delicate puree soup
Puree soup is prepared from both fresh and frozen vegetables.
- You will need: one eggplant, a small zucchini, several potatoes, 2-3 ripe tomatoes, onions, a little 15% cream.
- Peel all vegetables and cut into cubes.
- Pour potatoes into boiling water, 10 minutes after boiling - eggplant and zucchini, after another 5 minutes - finely chopped tomatoes and onions.
- After the last boil, remove the dish from the heat and beat the contents with a blender.
- Add cream, salt to taste and let the soup boil again.
This delicate and very healthy soup can be eaten with homemade croutons. It will appeal not only to the child, but also to the parents.
Puree
- Young, medium-sized fruits with shiny skin are suitable for making puree. Cut them in half, make shallow cuts along the entire length and season with salt. Leave for 40 minutes to remove the bitterness.
- Bake the eggplant halves in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Scoop out the pulp from the baked fruits with a spoon, mix with finely chopped sautéed onions, mix well.
- Simmer over low heat for another 20 minutes. To obtain a finer consistency, you can use a blender at the final stage of preparation.
Delicious eggplant puree is ready. It goes well with mashed potatoes, any vegetable salad and steam cutlets.
Eggplant or zucchini?
Pediatricians have opinions on the question of how many months/years to introduce children's menu eggplant, disperse. Some consider 8 months to be quite acceptable. Some people allow it no earlier than one and a half years. Others insist on age restrictions of up to three years.
And zucchini does not cause allergic reactions and is well absorbed by the child’s body. Doctors even advise artificial babies starting from 4 months, and babies breastfeeding– from 6 months.
It is wrong to compare eggplants and zucchini as part of a child’s diet, since they have different periods of introduction into complementary foods and contain a different set of nutrients.
Eggplants, if cooked correctly, can be a real delicacy. For example, pureed eggplant soups turn out very tasty and conquer even those who do not really like this vegetable. Simple and delicious recipes see such soups here.
Eggplant caviar, rolls, baked eggplants - all this is familiar, but why not make puree soup from eggplants? Moreover, such soups turn out to be very original and incredibly tasty!
Cream soups are prepared mainly from oven-baked or fried eggplants; there are also recipes that suggest boiling this vegetable to make cream soup. You can make such soups using any broth - vegetable, chicken, meat, and additional ingredients You can use a lot of different products, from the notorious onions and carrots to balsamic vinegar, cream, cream cheese and many others. So let's see how to cook the most delicious puree soups from eggplants.
Simple eggplant cream soup recipe
Photo: smaku.netIngredients:
600g eggplants
500ml water
2 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
fresh thyme
salt
Cooking method:
How to make eggplant puree soup. Peel the eggplants, cut into half-circles 1cm thick, chop the garlic, thinly slice the onion into half-rings, tear off the thyme leaves from the sprigs. Fry the eggplants, adding thyme and balsamic, until golden brown on all sides. Separately, fry the onion and garlic in oil until soft, add the eggplants, add water, bring everything to a boil, and simmer covered for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the stove, puree the contents with an immersion blender, add more broth or water if you want the soup to be thinner, pepper it and add salt to taste. Bring the finished soup almost to a boil, but do not boil, pour into plates, serve hot or warm, sprinkled with thyme.
It's better to season this soup natural yoghurt or cream, you can also add a little lemon juice to brighten the taste.
Recipe for vegetable puree soup from eggplant with cream
Ingredients:
300g eggplants
300ml vegetable broth
200ml cream
30g soft cream cheese
4 cloves garlic
1 onion and 1 tomato each
1 tsp seasonings (marjoram, basil, or Provençal herbs)
hot peppers
salt
Cooking method:
How to make eggplant puree soup with cream. Peel the eggplants, chop them into small pieces as desired, and cover with salted water for 15 minutes. Peel the tomato, cut into 4 pieces, add peeled garlic cloves, place in a foil “basket,” put in the oven for 20 minutes and bake at 200 degrees. Fry the onion in oil in a frying pan until browned, add squeezed eggplants, pour in a glass of broth, pepper everything, salt, add seasonings, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes under the lid. Mix stewed eggplant and baked tomatoes with garlic, puree everything in a blender, add to the puree cream cheese, pepper, pour in hot cream, add salt, mix the ingredients again with a blender, making a uniform puree, serve the soup.
Recipe for spicy eggplant cream soup
Ingredients:
300g eggplants
300ml broth
150ml cream 10%
4 cloves garlic
2 tomatoes
½ onion
1 tbsp. salt
1 tsp dried paprika
½ ground black pepper
0.3 tsp each coriander and nutmeg ground
Cooking method:
How to make spicy eggplant puree soup. Peel the eggplants, cut into cubes, add salted water, leave for 15 minutes, then drain and squeeze. Scald the tomatoes, remove the skin, cut them into slices, place on foil, add garlic cloves and bake everything in the oven until lightly browned. Cut the potatoes into cubes and cover with cold water. Fry the onion in a frying pan with oil, add potatoes, drain the water, eggplants, add broth and spices, mix everything and simmer covered for 5 minutes over medium heat. Put tomatoes and garlic into the soup, boil for 7 minutes, then puree the soup with a blender, pour in hot cream and puree again, bring to a boil, immediately remove from the stove, serve the soup, sprinkled with seeds or croutons.
There are a lot of options for preparing eggplant puree soups, try it, get creative and enjoy this wonderful dish!
Video recipe for eggplant soup
A delicious and healthy eggplant puree soup is not difficult to prepare! It’s simply amazing that the soup turns out thick and satisfying, using a minimum amount of ingredients for its preparation.
I offer you a simple basic version of eggplant cream soup, with a minimum of additives and spices, you can vary the spices to your taste. The color of the soup will also depend on the ingredients you add, cream will lighten the soup a little and a pinch of turmeric will give the soup a subtle yellow color. You can also adjust the thickness of the puree soup by adding boiling water or vegetable broth. If you want a richer soup, cook it with meat broth.
We will prepare all the products according to the list.
Chop the onion and garlic into very small cubes. We tear off all the leaves from the thyme sprig.
Peel the eggplant and cut the eggplant pulp into cubes. Place the chopped eggplant in a bowl, add thyme leaves, salt, ground black pepper and balsamic vinegar. Mix the contents of the bowl well.
In a saucepan with the addition of 1 tbsp. olive oil, fry the eggplants until golden brown over high heat, stirring occasionally. Fry for 7-10 minutes.
In a frying pan with 1 tbsp. fry the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft, 3-4 minutes. Place the onions and garlic in a saucepan with the fried eggplants.
Pour in 300 ml of water or vegetable broth. Salt the soup to taste and cook it for another 20 minutes.
Puree the soup in a blender. Determine the thickness to your taste, we like thick puree soups, add a little boiling water if necessary.
Serve the finished eggplant puree soup with croutons, croutons, and you can add a little cream.
Bon appetit!