Summer produce: Try white eggplant

Alongside traditional dark purple or “black” eggplant, some of our farmers market vendors feature white eggplant, a slightly milder variety of the vegetable whose uses are equally versatile. I’m growing it in my own kitchen garden, and so far it’s performed well in summer recipes. One use was a summer vegetable soup, a terrific way to use the small amounts of veggies emerging from my raised beds. The soup consisted of three or four yellow squash, one zucchini, lots of basil and a few slender white eggplant. Combined with sautéed onion and celery, fresh corn shaved from the cob, bits of roast chicken, homemade chicken stock and a can of good quality whole tomatoes, the soup was well-rounded and clean. The eggplant was young and tender enough to retain its skin, and its thin girth made it perfect for slicing cross-wise, like okra. In the soup, as in caponata later, it retained a tender, but substantial texture that outperformed its larger purple cousin, which can fall apart easily. I also made roasted eggplant spread, an easy dip comprised of the roasted pulp, roasted garlic, plenty of lemon juice, plain Greek yogurt and fresh basil. This worked well stuffed into cherry tomatoes, dolloped onto cucumber canapes or served with pita chips.