Friday, February 1, 2013

Italian-Stye Eggplant Sausages

Click HERE to order our new cookbook, The Chubby Vegetarian: 100 Inspired Vegetable Recipes for the Modern Table (Susan Schadt Press, November 2016). The recipe below is featured in the book!

What better to make a vegetarian sausage out of than a vegetable that has a meaty texture and is already pretty much shaped like a sausage! I'm talking about the Japanese eggplant, of course. They are available at most specialty grocery stores, but if the one near you doesn't have them, they can easily be found year-round at most Asian markets. 


Here we've flavored the Japanese eggplants using the same spice blend you'd find in almost any Italian sausage. It's a savory mix of sage, fennel, and spice. We serve them like they do in Jersey: hot-dog style on a hoagie roll, with potatoes, peppers, onions, and plenty of mustard.

These were so good I ate one for dinner, half of one for a snack, and another for lunch the next day. 


Italian-Stye Eggplant Sausages


1/4 cup olive oil

6 12-inch long Japanese eggplants (peeled using a vegetable peeler)
1 teaspoon ground fennel (or fennel pollen)
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
6 12-inch hoagie rolls (light and crisp like French bread)
deli mustard
Potato, Onion, and Pepper Topping (recipe follows)
1 cup shredded mozzarella (optional)

Into a large bowl, pour olive oil over the peeled eggplants and rub it in so that all of the oil is absorbed. In a small bowl make a spice mixture using the fennel, red pepper flakes, sage, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Generously rub each eggplant with the spice mixture. You should use all of the spice mixture. Place eggplants in a plastic bag in the refrigerator to marinate for at least an hour or overnight.




Cook eggplants over medium heat using a cast-iron grill pan. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side or until well-marked by the grill grates. Cook for a total of 12 to 16 minutes or until heated through. Serve on warm hoagie rolls that have been slathered in mustard and stuffed with the Potato, Onion, and Pepper Topping. Add cheese to the top of each and melt it under the broiler if you wish.


Potato, Onion, and Pepper Topping

2 tablespoons canola oil
1 medium potato (peeled, diced)
1 onion (peeled, diced)
1 green pepper (diced)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)


In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add the oil and wait for it to shimmer. Carefully add the potato, onion, and green pepper in a single layer. Allow mixture to cook undisturbed for about 3 minutes or until nicely browned. Toss in the tomato paste and cook until potatoes are tender, for about another 3 minutes. Remove from heat, season with salt and pepper, cover, and set aside until ready to assemble.


16 comments:

Bianca said...

Interesting! Eggplants are so weird. But tasty. Sometimes they freak me out. Sometimes I love them. We have an usual relationship. But this sounds weirdly good.

Andy said...

Wow, I love this idea so much. I got sick after eating a veggie dog awhile back and cant bring myself to eat them anymore. Eggplants are on my top list of favorites so I know I would LOVE this.

The Yogi Vegetarian said...

Wow these look seriously good! I love your idea of finding veg that's sausage-shaped and marinating, rather than making a mixture and shaping it.

Andy said...

Brilliant! I wonder if it would work to bake them?

The Chubby Vegetarian said...

Andy, I bet you could bake them. If you try it, let us know how it goes!

TCV

tender b. said...

Amazing!

lynn said...

so seriously ingenious! can't wait to make these...

Anonymous said...

I'm intrigued...but can you tell us about the texture? I'm worried that the eggplant would be total mush.

Becca Williams said...

Seriously. So creative. I am so making this ASAP.
thank you so much.

The Chubby Vegetarian said...

Recipe corrected/updated today.

TCV

Irene said...

Not sure I can get Japanese eggplants. Any idea if it would work to cut a regular one in strips or narrow wedges? LOVE YOUR BLOGG!! Just found it via pinterest :)

The Chubby Vegetarian said...

They are pretty widely available. Asian markets are a surefire source for Japanese eggplants. I'll bet it'll work out pretty good if you cut them into long strips. I've never tried it. Let us know how it turns out.

Joe Byer said...

This was such a great idea! I was forced to make a few changes though. I couldn't find Chinese Eggplant-I only tried two stores and just decided it to use squash instead. It was still delicious, cause I love squash, but I see where eggplant would be best. A trick I have been employing a lot lately is smoked salt. It smells like a camp fire and gives a great flavor to savory dishes. I used it quite liberally here to add to that grilled meat flavor. I can't wait to have this again and again, and again, and again... thanks for a new favorite!

mrswoodchuck said...

Like others, I couldn't find the Japanese eggplant and didn't have time to really do an all out search. I used regular eggplant. I used the spices exactly as the recipe has them, except I didn't put sage in. I marinated it overnight and was amazed at the transformation. The taste was delicious. My mom & I both ate some. Neither of us are vegetarians, although I am closer than she is. I highly recommend trying them.

Unknown said...

Just wondering if any one has tried this on the bbq? Looking for easy bbq recipes for my vegan daughter.

The Chubby Vegetarian said...

Hey, Karen, go for it! We think that could work well. We have a bunch of other BBQ recipes on the blog, too.