Meatless Monday - Eggplant Caviar

You'll need: 2 lb of eggplant, 3 medium ripe tomatoes, 2-3 garlic cloves, 1 tbs olive oil, salt & black pepper to taste

Roast eggplant (I used baby eggplant) at 375 till the start to collapse. Make sure to puncture each one with a   sharp knife to avoid a blowout.

Once roasted, they will look like giant plumbs

Cut each open to let out steam

Once cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh out of the roasted eggplants

Place flesh into a bowl, if there is a lot of juice or using older eggplants first place in fine strainer to leach out the bitter liquid

Cut ripe tomatoes in half - through the 'equator' and squeeze out seeds.  They just water down the caviar

See that pulpy mess that would have ended up on the dish

Mash the flesh of the eggplant with a potato masher

This is why it's called 'caviar', the seeds are so prevalent

Add diced tomatoes

I use my micro plane for the garlic cloves, 2 very large ones

Smells wonderful already

Add the olive oil, salt & black pepper and mix

Mix well and refrigerate, best served cooled on hearty bread.