Meatballs with Eggplant
Photo: Carolina Ayala / Contributor
For the past year, I have made a lot of meatballs. My daughter Ajna was carrying her second child and while having spent most of her adult life being vegan or at least vegetarian, at this time her cravings were all in for meat. I made steak, meat kebabs, meat stews and so many versions of meatballs, which were her favorite. Always wanting to incorporate vegetables into meat, I made meatballs with squash, with mushrooms, with lentils, with grated carrots and so on. Usually a 1:1 of vegetable to meat works well with meatballs, this way the meat works as a binder to tie in the flavor from the vegetables.
One time while trying to use up a big bounty of small eggplants from the farmer’s market, I smoked a few of them and mixed the pulp in with the meatballs, the best version emerged. While you can usually barely taste the vegetable mixed with the meat, in the case of the smoked eggplants, the beautiful smokiness with distinct in every bite of the meatball. Eggplants already have a meaty flavor so alongside meat, that flavor is amplified. Also, when making meatballs, skip frying then and use the oven for best results.