2 Key Tips For Eggplant That Is Crispy On The Outside And Creamy On The Inside Every Time

Texture is everything when it comes to cooking up a delicious eggplant dish. While you can surely get away with sneaking a suboptimally textured veggie into your baked eggplant parmesan, if you want your raging apple (yes, this was once a nickname for eggplants) to shine on its own, it's best to know how to cook it properly. One of the best ways to savor an eggplant is to cook its deep, purple skin until it's potato-chip crispy, all while keeping its earthy, meaty interior as creamy as hummus. To that end, we reached out to Michael Costa, the concept chef at the DC, NYC, South Beach, and LA locations of Zaytinya by José Andrés, to get his professional opinion on how to achieve the perfect textural balance. 

According to chef Costa, there are two major things to consider when prioritizing texture: the variety of eggplant and cooking method. "Make sure that you buy a smaller variety with thin skin like a graffiti eggplant," Costa suggests. But he doesn't stop there. "The skin of the thicker varieties can be leathery when cooked," he continued. "If you want the best texture possible roast the eggplant slowly until almost cooked then quickly and lightly char the skin either under a broiler or with a blowtorch." Unless you're a professional chef, you probably don't have a blowtorch handy, so maybe just stick with the broiler inside your oven.

Once your eggplant is cooked, there are plenty of great serving options available. As we noted before, roasting up some crispy eggplant with a creamy interior is perfect for dishes that allow the vegetable to shine on its own. Graffiti eggplants, like the ones that chef Costa recommends, tend to be sweeter and offer a more buttery finish than other varieties. The nice thing about the graffiti eggplant is that, due to its smaller size, its seeds don't interfere with the cooking and consuming process. As Costa says, "The larger [the eggplants] are the thicker the skin tends to be and the likelier they are to be full of seeds." The more seeds an eggplant has, the more bitter it may taste.

When deciding how to serve your perfectly textured eggplant, we recommend something that allows both the crackly skin and the creamy flesh to stand out. Of all the delicious (and easy) eggplant recipes out there, sticking to simpler fare — such as a vegan eggplant BLT, an eggplant gratin, or an eggplant caponata crostini — may be for the best. Not only does each of these dishes enhance the eggplant's flavor and texture, but they do so without any other ingredients distracting from the delectable veggie.