Oh, is it ever hard work to be photographed! We were exhausted after all that posing. 
Also, my yoga practice in the afternoon was a complete flop… 
I think I pulled my lower back in the morning restorative class. I know, right? Who pulls a muscle in a restorative class? Overall, I felt pretty down with the practice though, because my knee started acting up too, and I just felt like I’m slowly regressing all the way to the beginning. It really sucks to finish the course with the same injuries that I started with. Boo.
This made me feel a little better – vegetable lentil soup from day 1 with some parsley on top.
And these… yep, both. Who’s gonna stop me?
I had a large eggplant in my fridge that was on its last legs – so it was now or never situation. Now let me just very clear – I have never done anything with an eggplant before. Well, except eating maybe… But the cooking was always strictly done by others.
Grilled Eggplant with Parsley Garlic Sauce
[very slightly adapted from Imagelicious]
I spotted two recipes on Julia’s blog
Ingredients:
- 1 large eggplant
- 1 bunch of parsley (Julia used dill, and I think dill may work even better here)
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (I used the bottled juice, but don’t be lazy – get real stuff)
- 1/4 cup olive oil (I would cut this down a bit next time, and see what happens)
- salt, pepper
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp hot sauce
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (optional)
Directions:
Slice the eggplant into 1cm slices. Salt them liberally – I mean it… salt them a lot!!! Let stand for 30 minutes, until they start sweating. You’ll see little droplets of water appear. Wash the salt off, place on greased baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes (375F) or until ready.
Meanwhile, place parsley, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and salt/pepper into a food processor. Process until desired consistency (aka until it starts looking and smelling good to you). Mine was all lemony, garlicky with some parsley leafs still intact.
In a separate bowl, mix maple syrup, hot sauce, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce.
Place eggplant into a container in one layer, spoon parsley mixture liberally on top, and top off with maple syrup sauce over the top. Repeat with remaining slices. Refrigerate overnight.
Eat cold. On buckwheat. On rice. On bread. On [insert any food here].
Late night snack = a bit of pumpkin granola + frozen blueberries + vanilla soy milk.
And we couldn’t just let these marinate. HAD to have a taste. Soooo good. Can’t wait to try’em tomorrow.
Julia
June 2, 2010 at 8:58 pm
I am sooooo glad you liked them
)
Julia
June 2, 2010 at 9:06 pm
btw, I am completely in love with Smoked Tofu. It tastes very similar to Smoked Gouda (круглый колбасный сыр в русских магазинах продается) with similar texture. It also reminds me of Smoked Salmon! Definitely satisfies my cravings for cheese.
I also gave Soy/Tofu Creamcheese another try. I got jalapeno one in hopes that the strong spice/heat would mask the weird aftertaste, and it’s actually not bad. Toasted rye bread with jalapeno soy cream cheese, broccoli sprouts, smoked tofu and sliced cucumber – absolutely amazing and very filling combination!
Kate
June 3, 2010 at 2:11 pm
hmmm…. so where do you buy smoked tofu?
I’m open to trying it, although I’m not too crazy about incorporating a LOT of processed soy into my diet. I think one of the problems with people eating vegan, is when they are trying to simulate the non-vegan diet. Vegan pizza, vegan ice cream, vegan cream cheese.
Julia
June 3, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Vegan cream cheese was made out of vegan yogurt, ingredients were ok, very similar to regular cream cheese.
Smoked Tofu, however, was really really good. I think I am going to continue buying it regardless of whether I want to eat vegan or not. I bought it at my local Metro in their vegan section.
Kate
June 4, 2010 at 1:20 pm
i broke down, and bought smoked tofu yesterday. so what do I do with it?
Julia
June 4, 2010 at 1:47 pm
I just put it on a piece of bread… kinda like cheese
and ate it like that.
I have a few ideas. I told you how I absolutely loved “Scrambled Tofu”, so I am thinking Scrambled Tofu with Smoked Tofu
It should taste similar to Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Cheese.
Kate
June 4, 2010 at 9:03 pm
ok, so think cheese. i guess use like sandwich meat – so slice of smoked tofu and maybe spinach, tomato, ketchup… mmmmm…..