How To Cut An Eggplant For Grilling? (Step By Step Guide With Pictures)

Did you know eggplant is a nutrient-dense fruit? Well, now you know. Eggplants taste great when you marinate and grill them.

But do you know how to cut an eggplant for grilling?

Well, it’s simple. All you need to do is just take an eggplant and cut it horizontally into pieces of half-inch thickness (just like you would cut a loaf into pieces).

Or, you can also cut the eggplant lengthwise if it’s a small one. After that, it’s good to be grilled. You don’t have to peel off the skin of the eggplant for grilling.

Now, want to know the steps of cutting an eggplant in more detail? We’ve got a more thorough guide below.

So, check it out.

How To Cut An Eggplant For Grilling Correctly? (2 Simple Steps)

First off, we suggest that you pick a healthy eggplant for cutting and grilling. You should pick a particular eggplant that is a male one.

It’s because male eggplants do not taste as bitter as female ones.

Now, how do you know which eggplant is a male one?

Well, look at the bottom of the eggplant and notice the spot on the bottom. If it’s a single and round spot, it’s a male eggplant.

But if the spot on the bottom is a bit spread-around and wide, it’s a female eggplant. Check the image below for a better understanding:

Now, let’s see the steps of cutting an eggplant for grilling:

Step 1: Wash Your Eggplant

Before you start to cut your eggplant, you must first rinse it thoroughly with clean water.

Remember, raw eggplants can have dirt, dust, worms, and other contaminants. So, choose to spend at least 30 seconds rinsing and cleaning your eggplants.

Step 2: Cut Your Eggplants

If your eggplant is short in length, you can cut it into thin pieces lengthwise. Cutting the eggplant lengthwise will make the pieces relatively longer in shape.

Check out the image below to have an idea of how the cut pieces will look:

Now, if your eggplant is a long one, you can cut it horizontally like you would cut a piece of loaf. You can cut the eggplants into half-inch thick pieces (it’s the optimum thickness for grilling eggplants).

Cutting your eggplant this way will create relatively smaller-sized pieces.

See the image below to understand how the pieces would look like:

How To Grill An Eggplant After Cutting? (5-Step Process)

Now that you are done with cutting your eggplant, it’s time to grill it well. To do that, you can follow the steps mentioned below.

Step 1: Prepare Your Griller

In the first step of grilling your eggplant, you have to clean and prepare your griller.

If you have a gas griller, set it in HIGH mode and keep the lid closed for about 20 minutes.

Or, if you have a coal-based griller, put some coals in it and light them up. Now, keep the griller lid closed for about 20 minutes.

After that, open up the lid of your griller and let it cool down. After it’s cooled, use a griller brush to clean off any existing debris or burned food bits from the griller wire.

Then, apply some vegetable oil to the wires of the griller.

Step 2: Heat Up Your Griller

Once the cleaning process is done, you should set your griller to MEDIUM mode.

If your griller is a coal-based one, you should wait until the coals are burnt to the point when they are ash colored.

Step 3: Salt Your Eggplants

At this point, you have to apply salt to your eggplants and wait for about 20 minutes.

Keep in mind that this step is important because applying salt will remove the bitterness from your eggplants.

Step 4: Dry Your Eggplants

Now, you have to wash away the salts and then dry your eggplants. To dry them very well, you can use paper towels to sap away the water content from them.

Step 5: Apply Vegetable Oils And Grill Them

In this step, you have to apply some vegetable oil to your eggplants and put them on the griller. You can also add some additional salts if you want to.

Now, grill the eggplants until they are tender and have grill marks on them. This step should take about 10 minutes to complete.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few important questions that people commonly ask on this topic.

1. How to cut eggplant for frying?

The technique of cutting eggplants for frying is the same as for grilling. All you have to do is cut the eggplant into pieces of half-inch thickness, and you are good to go.

2. How long does grilling eggplants take?

The duration of grilling the eggplant depends on your personal preference. If you want to deep-grill the eggplants, you can keep them on the griller for 15 minutes. This will make the eggplant taste crispy. But, if you want to eat the grilled eggplant tender, you should grill it for 5 to 7 minutes.

3. Can you peel eggplant before grilling?

Whether to peel your eggplant or not is a personal preference. In the method mentioned above, we have not peeled the skin off of the eggplant. But, if you want to peel your eggplant before grilling it, you can do so with a vegetable peeler.

Conclusion

Now you’ve probably got a clear understanding of how to cut an eggplant for grilling.

As you can see from the above discussion, cutting your eggplant for grilling is not a complicated process.

You can cut your eggplant anyhow you want. We suggested cutting the eggplant both lengthwise and horizontally.

It completely depends on your personal preference. You can even add your creativity to this process and cut your eggplant in a new way. So, go ahead and try cutting and grilling your eggplant right now. Best of luck to you and have a nice day!!!