Summer nights

Today Justin worked on our little deck, making a huge seating area and crafting a roll-out shade out of some old bamboo window shades. It looks fabulous! Now it’s up to me to sew up some cushions for the bench. I need to search for some fabric that’s easy to handle but weather-resistant, too.

My contribution to this gorgeous night was this simple meal…White Bean Dip and Eggplant Dip with carrots, celery, and toasted pita. We got this recipe for the eggplant at a potluck we attended last weekend…a very nice woman named Faye was kind enough to write it down for me, as well as a great recipe for lettuce wraps that I’ll be making later this week.

This was the perfect light dinner, especially since we took it downstairs and ate with our fabulous landlords. (How often can you say that your landlords are fabulous? We’re so lucky.) We stayed out on their deck chatting the night away…every night should be like this.

Eggplant Dip

  • 1 large eggplant
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 2 tablespoons chile paste (I used Asian chile-garlic paste; Faye used red curry paste)
  • 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1/2 cup sliced green onions

Preheat oven to 400ËšF. Pierce eggplant in several places with a knife. Set on a baking sheet covered with foil and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until it shrivels up a bit. Let cool; peel eggplant and trim ends. If there are lots of seeds, remove most of them with your fingers.

Combine the eggplant pulp, soy sauce, lime juice, and chile paste in the bowl of a food processor, and puree until smooth. Taste for seasonings, adding more soy sauce or chile paste if desired. Stir in cilantro and green onion.

Makes about 1 cup.

Source: Faye Johnston.

6 responses to “Summer nights”

  1. We were out too! Man, those mosquitoes are bad! hope you have a great day!

  2. I love finding new healthy recipes to try out & this sounds delicious! Thanks so much for posting it. 🙂

  3. i’m not a huge fan of eggplant, but this dip sounds good and flavourful! a dinner of dips is definitely the way to eat in the summer!!

  4. Great dip! The eggplant base is a perfect idea! Yum.

    ~Dianka

  5. How do you compose such vibrant magazine-quality pictures?

    I’ll have to tuck away that recipe for next time I get eggplant.

  6. I liked this dip a lot, and I’m not a huge eggplant fan, either. I like it some ways, but sometimes the texture gets to me. Pearl, you’re so sweet! It’s usually a matter of placing it on the table, almost digging in, then remembering to take the photo…so it’s not often staged really well, but I guess they turn out well enough!

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