Growing up in the cold climate of the Ural Mountains, I was not very familiar with eggplant. When I got down to the Caspian Sea for summer to the historic town of Derbent, eggplants were a staple of the diet for my family that lived there. However, being unfamiliar to me, they were not too enticing, and generally I avoided them except in a funny sounding dish that was called ‘adzapsandali‘ that included many vegetables and had potatoes added for those of us who couldn’t live without potatoes.

By now, the only way I don’t like to eat eggplants is the mushy way like in babaganoush, the dish so widely popular that some people do not taste eggplants beyond this Mediterranean staple. By now I have also learned that I am texture-defensive, a politically correct term for us – those who do not like mushy things.

On the other hand, I grew to love pretty much all other kinds of eggplants. For a while our hatzil habayt was the dish we didn’t think to start Shabbat without. Now, I have just made a new recipe that’s quickly becoming my new favorite. It is much easier than most, and healthier than using corn starch that is widely used while frying eggplant:

For 2 medium eggplants:
1 small to medium red onion
3-4 cloves of garlic minced
1/3 cup of almond flour plus 1-2 tbls any flour
Spices of your choice – I use oregano, paprika, sumac, rass-el-hanout, aleppo pepper, a bit of cumin
Olive oil for the pans (you will need 2 or 3 pans depending on the size of the eggplant)
Fresh parsley or cilantro for garnish (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste plus kosher salt for preparation

Cut the eggplant in long stips (fast) or rounds (a bit more time and work)
Please the eggplant pieces on a baking tray on top of paper towels and sprinkle with kosher salt. Let stand for 20 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, prepare the coating:
In a big bowl put the almond flour and regular flour, add spices (use them liberally if you are used to that, less if you are just discovering the amazing world of spices) add salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the oven to 440F

Once the eggplants ‘sweats’, blot out the liquid as much as you can and coat the eggplant with the mixture you prepared. Shake off the excess a bit.
Pour a thin layer of oil into the baking tray and place eggplants snugly into the tray.
Roast for 10-15 minutes and then (depending on your oven and thickness of your slices) you might need to flip them and roast for 5-10 minutes more

You can eat them hot straight from the oven, cold and room temperature. They are delicious!