YOU can trick picky eaters with vegetable dishes that are as good as meaty ones.
One way is to serve food mixed with tomato sauce, cheese and a lot of potatoes. You can make vegetable patties or mock meatballs using minced root vegetables.
Here is a sauce that has been with the family for a long time. It is successful because even non-eggplant eaters will take it. My nephew Pannon hates eggplants unless they are cooked as torta or stuffed eggplant dipped in beaten egg and fried till golden brown.
Many people hate eggplant dishes because the vegetable has a “katol” (itchy) taste. Katol refers to that irritating feeling on your tongue when you eat something. It has no real English equivalent except perhaps the literal meaning, itchy. Katol is the itchy feeling after you eat something. Fair enough?
The eggplant-based sauce can be tweaked any way you want. Here is the recipe.
Ingredients: Three pieces large eggplants; one cup white onion, chopped; 3⁄4 cup chopped mushroom of choice (or a combination of button, shitake and oyster); three large garlic cloves, minced; 1/3 cup red wind (optional); one can chopped tomatoes; one can tomato sauce (basil flavor is excellent); 8 oz spaghetti, broken into three and boiled; 1⁄4 cup cream; grated Parmesan cheese; salt and pepper to taste.
Procedure: Shred eggplant using the largest hole of a grater. To remove the liquid and katol, squeeze the eggplants very well. Set aside. Heat saucepan then add oil. Saute onions until translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms have wilted.
Add the eggplants and cook until the vegetable is soft. Add the garlic and the wine, stirring the dish well.
Now add the crushed tomatoes and the tomato sauce. Lover the heat and cook covered, stirring once in a while to prevent burning the sauce.
Once the eggplants are very soft, add the cream and 1⁄4 cup cheese. Mix well. Pour the sauce over the cooked spaghetti and top with more cheese.
According to Medial News Today, eggplants are good sources of fiber. One cup of cooked cubed eggplant has four grams of fiber. Fiber can help lower the body’s cholesterol level. Do not peel eggplants. The skin has anthocyanin, which helps protect the brain from damage caused by free radicals. Maybe now you can add eggplants to your list of brain food.