Check out the eggplant challenge entries!

I am excited we got so many wonderful entries for the eggplant challenge by midnight last night! At last count there were seven. This was so much fun, I will definitely do it again. For those who missed the deadline, it's not too late (Tom Myers). Send in your eggplant pictures this week and I will post them. I have tagged all of the eggplant posts so that if you click on this link, you can see all of them. By the way I tasted my eggplant and lamb shepherd's pie this morning (I made a mini one just in case) and it was awesome.

Thanks to Steve, Chelsea, Trout, April, Dianne, and Jackie for posting your gorgeous photos and sometimes even the recipes! No I am not going to pick a winner, because I can't taste the food. The dishes created showed a really cool variety of ways to feature eggplant. I also noticed that these dishes all happen to meet different types of diets without sacrificing creativity or apparent flavor (I have to say apparent because I can only imagine eating them, though I am very good at it):

• In a casserole with other fall vegetables (vegan)
  
• In a comfort-food homestyle shepherd's pie (gluten-free)
  
• With a Thai/South Asian flair using chili garlic sauce and tempeh (also vegan and gluten-free)
• In a fresh saute served alongside turnip greens (appears to be vegan and gluten-free)
• Classically prepared in an eggplant parm (vegetarian)
  
• Made into fries with an onion dipping sauce (vegetarian)
  
• Stir-fried with shrimp and other fresh veggies in an Indian-style curry (gluten-free)
  

The individual posts are:

1. Steve Small's one-of-a-kind eggplant dish
   

2. Eggplant and Lamb Sausage Shepherd's Pie

3. Figs and Twigs does eggplant and tempeh

4. Trout's Sauteed Eggplant with braised turnip greens

5. Eggplant challenged by 1000 Pizza Doughs

6. Eggplant fries with creamy onion dip from Dianne

7. Eggplant Challenge is on

I hope this gives all of you with CSAs some ideas about what to do with your eggplant! Enjoy!