Eggplant Soup with Milk and Herbs

Name: Eggplant Soup with Milk and Basil - Creamy Puree Soup
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Ingredients: Eggplant 2; Olive oil 1 tbsp; Tomato 1-2 (1 large or 2 medium); Basil 3-4 sprigs (plus a sprig for each bowl); Garlic 1 clove; Milk 1 cup (or cream) (200 ml); Salt, black pepper, nutmeg to taste; Coarsely ground hot pepper a pinch, optional; Toasted bread or croutons for serving

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I think almost any vegetable can go into a first course. Even vegetables that rarely turn up in soups make delicious ones. These are usually pureed soups or soups finished with milk, cream soups. One of these wonderful soups is a hearty pureed eggplant soup with milk and basil.

Eggplant puree soup is made from young eggplants that have been roasted or boiled first, with milk or cream added, plus other vegetables that mostly serve to improve the flavor and aroma of the finished dish. Any vegetable puree soup is simple and fairly quick to make, and there are usually not many ingredients. For example, you can make a tasty potato soup from potatoes alone and then add pork cracklings to it.

This appetizing eggplant soup is somewhat similar in composition to the well-known Turkish side dish or sauce, Beğendi. Thanks to the milk or cream, the spices and a small amount of tomato, you get an excellent eggplant puree soup. It is low in calories and well suited to a diet. But if you like, you can liven it up with spices, heat and fragrant herbs.

Making eggplant soup is quite simple. Prepare young eggplants by roasting or boiling them, puree the flesh with a blender and cook it in milk or cream. The result is a tasty cream of eggplant soup, a base to which you can add other vegetables. Soups like this are often finished with butter before serving and served with toasted bread or croutons.

When you are planning to make eggplant soup, don’t buy overripe eggplants. Overripe eggplants accumulate solanine, a very unpleasant and toxic substance. It is also found in green tomatoes and “greened” potatoes. Besides, overripe eggplants have already formed seeds that would spoil the dish; an eggplant puree soup with hard seeds is unlikely to please anyone.

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Ingredients

2 servings

Eggplant 2
Olive oil 1 tbsp
Tomato 1-2 (1 large or 2 medium)
Basil 3-4 sprigs (plus a sprig for each bowl)
Garlic 1 clove
Milk 1 cup (or cream) (200 ml)
Salt, black pepper, nutmeg to taste
Coarsely ground hot pepper a pinch, optional
Toasted bread or croutons for serving

Step-by-step recipe

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Eggplants

For a pureed eggplant soup you need fairly young eggplants with dark purple skin. If the seeds in the eggplants have already formed and are clearly visible, you will have to spend time removing them. You also need one large ripe tomato, which is easy to peel and turn into tomato puree. Whether to use milk or cream is up to you, but don’t make the eggplant cream soup too rich.
It is best to roast the eggplants: roasted eggplants have a wonderful flavor and aroma.
Roast the eggplants until the skin is black and slightly charred, preferably over an open flame or hot coals, turning them so the skin chars on all sides. This usually takes 15 mins. The inside of the eggplant should be soft. Put the roasted eggplants in a pot and cover with a lid for 10 mins; they need to cool so they don’t burn your fingers.

Vegetable base

Make the tomato puree and fry it. Peel the tomato (blanching it in boiling water is the easiest way) and remove the seeds, put it in a blender and add a peeled garlic clove. Blend the tomato and garlic into a puree. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat and pour in the tomato puree. Fry the tomato for 2-3 mins, stirring.
Clean the roasted eggplants and puree the flesh. Peel off the burnt skin and cut off the stem. Cut each eggplant in half lengthwise and check that the seeds haven’t formed. If they have, remove them as thoroughly as you can with a teaspoon. Young seeds are not hard and will hardly be noticeable in the pureed soup. Put the eggplant flesh in a blender, blend until smooth and add to the saucepan with the tomato.
Stew the tomato and eggplant over medium heat for 6-7 mins without a lid, stirring the mixture fairly vigorously with a wooden spatula so that the vegetable mass becomes uniform.
Add the basil and spices. Pull the leaves off the basil sprigs and chop them very finely with a knife. Add the chopped basil to the vegetables, mix well and simmer covered for 3-4 mins. Season the vegetables lightly with salt and pepper to taste. Add a knife tip of ground nutmeg and stir the vegetables with the spices.

Simmering

Pour a full cup of fresh milk over the vegetables. Without covering the saucepan, bring the eggplant soup to a boil and simmer over low heat for 10 mins. Be sure to stir the soup. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serving

Ladle the soup into bowls and, if you like, sprinkle with a pinch of coarsely ground hot pepper. Garnish with a sprig of fresh basil. The finished eggplant soup is medium thick, very delicate and creamy in flavor.
Serve the soup hot, right away. I recommend toasted bread or croutons with it; they go very well together.
If you like, you can add other mild vegetables that puree well, such as zucchini.

Calories and macros

215 kcal

Serving ≈ 350 g

Protein7 g15% of kcal
Fat11 g51% of kcal
Carbs16 g34% of kcal

100 g61 kcalProtein 2 gFat 3.1 gCarbs 4.7 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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