I love aubergine. Well, I love food in general, but aubergine is something I learnt to love as I got older. And one of my current favourite recipes is this Irish Red Ale Aubergine. The smooth, slightly sweet taste of the red ale is soaked up by the aubergine, making it an absolute delicious combination.

When I grew up I can’t remember we ever ate aubergine at home, possibly because it does not grow in my country, so therefore it was not readily available in the stores.

A close up of an aubergine, a glass of red ale and a pot of salt and a green napkin, resting on a cork cutting board — Red Ale Aubergine ingredients close up

How to cook an aubergine

When I moved abroad my eating habits moved with me and it took me years to get out of old ruts and include other food stuff in my general dinner rotation.

Aubergine was one of those vegetables that I didn’t quite know what to do with. How do you even cook this strange looking shape? Can you eat the skin? What’s inside it? Does it contain a stone? Then you try a few recipes and they might not turn out as you had expected. Is it suppose to taste like this?

A cut and scored aubergine is cooking in a sauteuse with red ale, meaty side down — Cooking the aubergine in red ale

In the beginning I would not cook it enough and ate it almost raw. I was afraid I would ruin it if I let it go too soft.

After ordering it at restaurants a couple of times and I finally figured out how it is supposed to taste I began to be more adventurous with my aubergine recipes and started to experiment with different flavours.

Red Ale aubergine cooked and plated in a blue bowl, sprinkled with green onions, next to a wooden cutting board and dressing in a bowl — Red Ale aubergine cooked

This recipe came to me with my love for red ale and seeing someone cooking with other types of beer. I figured the slightly sweet and smooth taste of red ale and the ability of aubergine to soak up flavours would work well together.

The dressing is a nice addition to the dish that will bring a salty umami flavour to your plate. Serve as is or with Basmati rice.

Variations

I choose to call this recipe Irish Red Ale Aubergine because this is the type of Red Ale that I drink most at the moment. I used Smithwick’s Red Ale but you can experiment with the type of beer that you prefer. Let me know how it goes.

If you want to try some other aubergine recipes, why not try my panko crusted aubergine bites or a delicious red curry aubergine.

An aubergine, a glass of red ale and a pot of salt and a green napkin, resting on a cork cutting board

Print Recipe

Irish red ale aubergine

Gentle caramel notes of an Irish red ale, mixing with the texture of a cooked aubergine

Prep Time20

Cook Time16

Total Time36

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Vegetarian

Keyword: aubergine, irish red ale

Servings: 2 portions

Ingredients

1 large aubergine
200 ml Irish Red Ale
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil

Dressing

100 ml yogurt
50 ml mayonnaise
1 ½ tsp miso

Instructions

Cut off both ends of the aubergine and then cut in half.
Put meat side down on your cutting board. Score the skin in a diagonal pattern.
Turn the aubergine over and salt the meat side. Let it rest for ten minutes to draw out excess water.
Gently pat the aubergine with a paper towel.
Heat a frying pan and fry the aubergine with meat side down until browning, about 3 minutes.
Then briefly turn it over to skin side down and fry for another 3 minutes.
Turn back to meat side and pour the ale over the aubergine skin, soaking them.
Turn down the pan to low and slowly cook the Ale for ten minutes.
While the Ale is cooking into the aubergine, prepare the dressing.
Mix all the ingredients together, taste to see if need more miso.
Serve the aubergine with rice and the sauce.