Healthy Eggplant Side Dish Recipes

This grilled vegetable salad is filled with summer zucchini and eggplant that are marinated in an herby dressing. Crusty country-style bread helps soak up the flavors. The optional feta cheese adds a briny finishing note. To keep sodium in check, reduce the amount of salt in the salad if you opt to use the feta.

Master this simple grilled eggplant recipe and you'll have the foundation for all sorts of healthy summer dishes. Serve the eggplant slices as a side with grilled chicken, fish or meat; add grilled eggplant to a salad; stuff it into sandwiches; chop it and top pizza with it; stir it into pasta dishes or grain bowls--the possibilities are almost endless.

Bursting with fresh vegetables, this classic Provençal stew is wonderful with eggs, pasta or grilled fish.

Summer's harvest--eggplant, corn and zucchini--stars in this healthy, Mexican-inspired casserole that's perfect for serving a crowd or for a dinner with leftovers for the next day.

Roasted vegetables are a popular choice because they are so easy to prepare. In this recipe, eggplant, mushrooms, sweet pepper and red onion are drizzled in a simple sage vinaigrette and roasted until tender.

This caponata is a vibrant mixture of fresh vegetables, including eggplant, onion, celery and tomatoes. Olives, capers, basil and pine nuts makes it special. Serve it as a side with fish or as a spread on rustic bread. Prepare it the night before serving if you can; it always tastes better the next day.

Ratatouille, a classic French dish with tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper and onion, is frequently cooked low and slow until it turns silky and luscious. We kept the classic flavor but gave it a makeover by thinly slicing the vegetables and layering them in a cast-iron pan. We brighten up the flavor at the end with a splash of red-wine vinegar.

Ratatouille is a type of veggie-forward, Provençal-style stew. Our sheet-pan ratatouille features tangy goat cheese and sweet balsamic glaze that complement the tender charred vegetables. Bake the tomatoes on a separate pan so that the steam from the tomatoes won't steam the other vegetables.

You can grill the eggplant rounds up to a day in advance, then assemble the eggplant, tomato and mozzarella “stacks” at the last minute. To make the eggplant and tomato stacks look symmetrical, use eggplant and tomatoes with approximately the same diameter.

In this vegetable side dish, the Italian sauce agrodolce translates to sour ("agro") and sweet ("dolce"). Pro tip: It's as delicious on grilled summer vegetables as it is on bitter greens and roasted winter squash. Here, grilled eggplant acts like a sponge, soaking in that addictive sweet-sour sauce as it rests. No baby eggplant? No problem. Cut large eggplant into 1/4-inch-thick slices.

This vegan side dish is traditionally served at room temperature with grilled meat or fish, but feel free to double your portion and eat it as a vegan entree with crusty bread for dipping in that garlicky, flavor-packed olive oil. The name for this combination of roasted vegetables comes from the Catalan escalivar, meaning to cook in ashes, though most folks these days use an oven or grill to put some char on their veggies.

This stunning side dish of layered tomatoes, eggplant, summer squash and leeks bursts with fresh flavor. To make it even more colorful, use half a summer squash and half a zucchini. Try it alongside any grilled meat. Leftovers are delicious sandwiched between slices of crusty whole-grain bread.