Eggplant is a versatile and nutritious vegetable that is inexpensive to purchase and easy to prepare. Some key tips for saving money and getting the most nutrition from eggplant include buying conventional rather than organic varieties, looking for sales, slicing or dicing the vegetable to add to soups, sauces and more, and cooking it with a bit of olive oil while keeping the skin on. Eggplant provides important vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber for a healthy diet.

1. Cost Saving Tips
TIPS FOR DAILY USE
Eggplant
 If buying in a grocery store
 Slice up and add to soups,
 Avoid organically grown eggplant. These are
more expensive and do not differ nutri- sauces, and casseroles
Slice it ½ inch thick and grill,
A Superfood
tionally from the other types! 
 Look for
bake, or sauté
SALES!  Leave the skin on to keep the
nutrition benefits
 Put it on sandwiches, chop it
up and put it in stir fry, spa-
ghetti sauce
Nutritional Content  Cook in a bit of olive oil and
season to liking!
 Good source of Folate - (good for a healthy
pregnancy and baby development!)
 The skin contains Dietary Fiber-
Binds to bad cholesterol and removes it
from the body!
Great source of POTASSIUM, manganese, copper,

and thiamin (Vit B1), Vit B6, magnesium, and
What is a Superfood?
niacin—ALL are needed for a healthy body! A natural food that is especially
 Contains Antioxidants, which are beneficial because of its level of
cancer preventing agents! antioxidants and health-protecting
Jacqueline Barnwell
Jaclyn Dickriede qualities.
Rachel Duque
Neda Kashenian

2. Growing
la nt Eggplants prefer fertile, well-drained, How to Choose a Ripe
gp
History of the slightly acidic soils.
Eggplant
E g The eggplant
Require a warm growing season.
The crop is often heavy so staking may be
necessary to support the growing plant.
 Choose a firm, smooth-skinned
eggplant that is heavy for its size; avoid
those with soft or brown spots.
A few weeks before the first frost pinch off the
originated in India  Gently push with your thumb—If the
blossoms so that the plants channel energy into
and was originally ripening existing fruit . flesh gives slightly but then bounces
thought of to be
Do not plant eggplants or other tomato-family
back, it is ripe.
poisonous. It is closely crops in the same location to  If the indentation remains, it is overripe
related to the tomato. prevent plant disease. and the insides will be mushy.
The growing season for the eggplant is late  If there is no give, the eggplant was
summer to early autumn and it is easy
Harvesting picked too early.
 Make sure an
to grow at home. Eggplant is a eggplant isn't dry
Eggplants are harvested at their peak ripeness inside, knock on it
fruit that can be used to help lower blood when they develop color, but before they lose with your knuckles.
cholesterol. their shine. Seeds on over-ripe fruit turn brown. If you hear a
Check for maturity by pushing on one hollow sound,
side of the fruit with the ball of the thumb. If the don't buy it
fruit does not spring back when released, it is
mature. How to Eat
Cut the stem with Keep eggplant in a cool, dry place. Avoid
pruning shears and leave storing near apples, as apples give off a gas
some stem on the fruit. that causes eggplant to ripen too quickly.
If you require a longer storage time,
Where to buy place your eggplant in a plastic bag and put
it in the REFRIDGERATOR. Never eat raw egg-
In the produce section plant since it contains the toxin solamine.,
of your local grocery store, or farmer’s market! which is destroyed by cooking.