22 Delicious Eggplant Recipes You Can Enjoy All Year Long

Our vegetarian-spin on traditional meatballs is packed with familiar flavor agents, such as cheese, garlic, and oregano. The main difference here is that a blend of eggplant and white beans, such as cannellini, replace the beef and are bound together with breadcrumbs and egg. 

This dish has a few moving parts but it takes less than an hour to prepare. It starts off with roasting a whole eggplant on the grill until the skin is lightly charred. While it cooks, prepare the three-ingredient tahini sauce that's mixed in with the eggplant before it's served over a bed of pistachio-scented pilaf. 

Eggplant parmesan isn't the only Italian dish eggplant shines in. Here, it's roasted and combined with cherry tomatoes, shallots, and capers and tossed with store-bought cheese ravioli for an easy vegetarian dinner.

If you've been searching for the perfect vegetarian sandwich, look no further than this tasty recipe. Eggplant slices are brushed with a glaze of soy sauce, lime, rice vinegar, and garlic, then roasted until tender and creamy. Don't forget the quick-pickled carrot, radishes, and cucumber that adds a tangy crunch. 

This version of vegetable chutney—a popular dish in South India where the ingredients are hand-pounded to retain their flavor—mixes cooked eggplant with tamarind paste, cilantro, sugar, and toasted spices in a mortar and pestle (or food processor) until well combined. 

Sweet, roasted, and nutty, this one-pan dinner will delight your palate. Flame-kissed and tender slices of eggplant are stuffed and rolled with three cheeses (fresh mozzarella, ricotta, and feta), currants, pine nuts, and breadcrumbs, then baked in a fresh tomato sauce. 

For a quick, hearty, and meat-free meal, make this riff on caprese pasta. In addition to fragrant basil, creamy ricotta, and fresh diced tomatoes, sautéed, diced eggplant is added to the mix. It's a delicious way to elevate store-bought gnocchi.

Combined together, meaty mushrooms and eggplant make a perfect filling for lasagna.

Here's a lighter, low-carb version of eggplant parmesan. Instead of breading and frying slices, they are grilled. Top with mozzarella, return to the grill until the cheese melts, and then top with a tomato-shallot mixture, basil, and drizzle with good-quality olive oil.

Yes, the charred roasted red peppers are delicious, and yes, the campanelle-shaped pasta is a unique choice, but the real star of the show is sweet sautéed eggplant. Make this dish for a summer potluck and watch as it disappears quickly.

This dip has it all: The fruitiness of good-quality olive oil, mild shallots, fragrant mint, sour lime juice, spicy hot chile peppers, and meaty eggplant. Serve it as an appetizer or main course—either way, it will be an instant favorite.

These layered eggplant and tomato stacks are sure to win the crowd over. We love them served alongside warm pita bread or as an appetizer, but they also win as a vegetable side dish alongside grilled meat.

You've heard of vegetarian lasagnas, but have you ever heard of vegetarian meatballs? Tender puréed eggplant, breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and an egg white are whirred together to create a paste, then rolled into large balls and pan-fried.

Talk about a restaurant-worthy starter! The only cooking required here is broiling the eggplant until it becomes juicy and crispy—the rounds are then topped with heirloom cherry tomatoes, mixed olives, parsley, feta, and a rich olive oil. Serve with crusty bread to sop up all the juices.

You won't believe how delicious this recipe is. Start with homemade pizza dough, then add a homemade tomato-onion sauce, roasted eggplant, Swiss chard, and provolone. The layers  work together so well, the resulting pie is just so flavorful.

This dish starts with an unconventional technique—roasting a whole eggplant directly on a gas stove. From there, a paste is made with onions, ginger, and garlic; sauté that with a diced chile pepper, cumin seeds, diced tomatoes, turmeric, and eggplant. Serve over rice for a flavorful entrée.

Refreshing and healthy, this charred, vegetable-based soba noodle salad makes a delicious lunch or side dish—and it's vegan!

Making this pizza takes less time than it would take to order one and pick it up from your favorite neighborhood spot—and it's so much more delicious. With deep-purple eggplant, crunchy pistachios, and bursting pomegranate, the variety of textures, colors, and flavors makes for an exciting meal.

When you're craving healthy comfort food, make this stuffed eggplant dish. The delicate flavor of ground lamb is a hearty complement to brown rice, fresh mint, and parsley for the filling.

Talk about a summer stunner! Large slices of eggplant are grilled, then topped with a combination of cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, pine nuts, and basil. It's just like your favorite caprese, but elevated with eggplant.

What would a list of eggplant recipes be without this Italian classic? It's a dish so delicious that there's really no need to reinvent the wheel when preparing it. You'll find layers of red sauce, meaty fried eggplant, and melted cheese in every bite. 

No, those aren't rings of calamari. Calamarata is a type of pasta that just so happens to resemble calamari. Here, it's tossed with a variety of colorful vegetables, including eggplant and cherry tomatoes, as well as sweet Italian sausage.