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!
[wooslider slide_page=”grilled-eggplant” slider_type=”slides” limit=”3″ thumbnails=”true”]
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.
These look amazing! I’m often disappointed by eggplant but I think these will be a hit! Can´t wait to try them.
I feel the same way about eggplant sometimes. It has the potential to get mushy – but not if you grill it like this!
Oh yum, I will definitely be making these when eggplants are back in season! The thai basil sauce sounds delicious.. Hey Grace, I just wanted to let you know that I love reading your blog, and I am nominating you for the Liebster Award, head over to my blog to see what it’s all about http://www.incrediblyedible.org/2014/08/liebster-award.html. 🙂
Thanks for your sweet comment Laura and thanks for nominating me! Made my day!
Your so welcome Grace! I look forward to reading your reply:)
Oh I love a good eggplant dish. And miso is so nice with it! Totally brings out those rich, caramel-y flavours. And that sauce? OMG. This is my perfect summer meal!
Allison, you’re so spot on! You know what’s good! 😉 Thank you!
My dear friend, do you believe I’ve never had eggplant and thai basil together??? I think I am missing something really good in life! Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe. As usually your photos as stunning!
Thank you Olivia! I love discovering new flavors! I think that’s what I enjoy most about cooking / blogging – so many foods to try and tasty new ways of cooking them or combining them. It’s endless fun!
Hi Grace, what a wonderful dish, love how you treated the eggplant here and I bet the thai basil is really good with them. Pinned!
Thank you Cheri!
I still have not tried freekah yet! This recipe might push my over the edge though! I LOVE miso eggplant and your sauce sounds amazing! Cannot wait to try this one- pinning now 🙂
Geez, I could dive into this right now. Eggplant and Thai basil are a great combination…love it together in curries too. I need to get my hands on some freekeh now!
YUM. Your pictures are gorgeous and I think I just fell in love with eggplant. Seriously awesome post.