Smoky Eggplant Soup Recipe (2024)

I often blacken eggplants over the gas flame on my stovetop and they always have a smoky flavor. Did you let them cool before peeling away the charred skin? I think contact between the skin and the flesh transfers flavor.

I don't get what I did wrong. This was awful. The dog wouldn't even eat it. I think my family will be forever making fun of this recipe.

Whatever method you use to char the eggplants, do as Catalans and Spaniards do and put them in a brown paper bag while they cool after they’re cooked. They’ll absorb more of the smokey flavor and you’ll be able to peel the charred skin off quite easily. Same as for red peppers or other vegetables charred like this.

This is the most sought after food recipe from family and friends, and it always turns out the same-delicious. It is both tasty and healthy. I always embellish it at the end with crushed almonds or pistachios along with fried crunchy onions on the top.Also, it is tastier served hot. Try it.

Agree that it wasn't very smoky when broiled. Added a bit of smoked piméton and seasoned w applewood smoked salt. Drizzled with lemon olive oil and thinned créme fraiîche. Eggplant flavor really comes through in this lovely soup.

I froze what I had left of this, just to see if it would be a way to keep some of the current bumper crop. And yes indeed, it was fine. Za'atar should be used generously (made from an online recipe in Fine Cooking). I'll be making more of this soup for the freezer.

This tastes very good, but the two times I've made it the soup has been brown and not the creamy color pictured. It also takes me more than a half hour.

Loved this soup being spicy. Lemon really makes this soup. Didn't garnish with lemon jest or oil. Used crisped bread crumbs from the freezer and sprinkled with Za'atar.

I don't know what I did right. I am a complete amateur. I followed the recipe slavishly, and the results were amazing. The taste was complex: spicy, savory and lemony. I found it very quick and simple. The oil and zest garnish were beautiful. My family loved it. This one will go into my repertoire for sure.

For those cursed with an electric stove/oven (such as myself), I split the eggplants lengthwise, brushed the flesh with olive oil and roasted in the oven at 500 degrees for about minutes flesh-side up and then an additional 10 minutes flesh-side down. The skin peels right off. Alas, there is no smoky flavor, but the soup still comes out great. Still strained the soup, even after using an immersion blender, as I find unstrained soups sit heavy in the stomach afterwards.

Adding smoked paprika when you're simmering helps up the smokiness. I used less garlic and am glad I did. Came out delicious!

Very good! I grilled the eggplant on my charcoal BBQ for an additional smoke taste. Took a little longer, but well worth the effort.

I made this exactly as directed. I agree there is no need to strain the soup. Also, the eggplant takes a lot longer than the recipe says to cook under the broiler. It actually tasted more flavorful when reheated the next day. I felt like it needed a little something, so I crumbled a little feta on top. Delicious!

This was good, not great. I made Za'atar from a recipe I found in Fine Cooking, using sumac, which I keep around. I cooked the eggplants on the gas grill, and didn't get much smoky -- or even charred -- taste. Lots of eggplant in the garden, so it might be worth lighting charcoal for this. Did not strain, just blitzed it throughly with immersion blender.

Add Smokey saltAdded half and half - not a lot

Amazing. Don't skip the garnish. Rich, complex & surprising. The kids thought it had potatoes & cream at first. Once they tried it with the garnish, they said, "this is the best soup we've ever had". And I experiment a lot

Fabulous!! I have a bounty of eggplants, so will be making another batch of this to freeze. I don't see why that wouldn't work just fine, but if anyone has tried freezing with poor results, please warn me! :)

Delicious! I puréed in a vitamix high speed blender and it came out completely smooth so I didn’t need to strain it. Make sure you really Char the eggplants under the broiler until they collapse. Once they cool, the skin peels off easily, mine came out a lovely creamy color like the picture . I used one lighter colored eggplant and 2 small purple ones. This took much longer than 30 mins to make but well worth it. No need for lemon oil. Added lemon juice to puréed soup and ready to eat,

Not bad, just such a mild eggplant flavor that it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. The eggplant is just a nearly mute carrier for the spices and lemon.

Blackening and thoroughly cooking the eggplant over a gas flame is key. And when you put them in a paper bag to smoke them further, be sure to put the bag in a bowl so you won’t lose any of the excellent juice. The second time I made this I also realized that I could use every burner to roast them rather than roasting one at a time, that adding a bit of smoked paprika is still nice even if your eggplant is well smoked, and if you use graffiti eggplant, you’ll get a lighter colored soup.

Can someone please let me know more about the aubergines / egg plants they use. We live in France - will simple Mediterranean aubergines do?

This recipe is pretty flat by itself and I’m surprised it was published the way it is. It really needs another element to brighten it up. As such I made a lemon tahini sauce that really does the trick when you put a bit in each bowl with a bit of olive oil. Really would go great with some good pita with olive oil and a bit of zatar.Lemon tahini Sauce recipe: 1/2 cup tahini, 1/3 cup lemon juice, 1/3 water, cumin, plenty of salt, few cloves grated garlic, and about a teaspoon of sugar.

Did not taste Smokey at all. Broiled for much longer than suggested until skins blackened. Tastes like eggplant and onions.Okay but I wouldn’t make it again

Easy soup base paired with custardy roasted eggplant makes for a meal that is as easy as it is delicious (which is to say quite very much yes)

Lovely and surprising to many who avoid eggplants in any form. Emphasis is correct, on the smoky flavor of this soup. I use an old, made of relatively thin anodized aluminum, ribbed steak pan to deeply char the the eggplants. I raise its temperature before placing the eggplants - using no grease whatsoever. When removing the eggplants' flesh, scrape the skin (from the inside of course) to extract as much as the char.

Loved this, especially as a spicy soup with lots of cayenne and added sumac. Did not strain and used an immersion blender. I did not use the lemon oil, but found that a few drops of lemon with some zest did the trick to capture the brightness.

I charred some sweet Italian peppers while I did the eggplants, over my fire pit, and popped them into a container for the next day. The peppers went into the soup as well. Delicious! I only want to eat eggplant this way, now!

Does anyone know whether one can roast the eggplant, peel and freeze till ready to make the soup?

I thought this soup was delicious. I was nervous because I had never cooked eggplant before, but I did the directly-on-the-stove method, then put them in a paper bag after to capture the smokiness like the comments suggested. The one thing I'll say is that it's not super filling. It would be the perfect appetizer at a nice dinner party.