Spiced Eggplant and Beef Breakfast Skillet with Dill
Eggplant cubes browned until silky with cumin and coriander, ground beef and crushed tomato cooked down around them, eggs set into the pan under toasted almonds and dill.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Eggplant at breakfast is not the first thing most people reach for, and it should be. Cooked properly it goes silky rather than spongy, it takes spice better than almost any other vegetable, and it turns a small amount of beef into a pan that feeds four people. I make this on a weekend morning in late summer when eggplant is cheap and heavy and the skins still shine. It takes about fifty minutes start to finish and there is only one pan to wash at the end of it.
The method is really about heat and patience with the eggplant. Cubes go into a hot, generously oiled pan and are left alone until the undersides are deep brown, then turned once. They will drink the oil at first and give some of it back as they collapse, which is normal and is not a sign you need more. The beef browns after, the spices bloom in what is left, and the crushed tomato goes in to pull it all into a loose sauce that the eggs can sit down into.
It comes to the table smelling of cumin, and it eats rich and a little sweet from the eggplant with the tomato keeping it sharp. The dill is what makes it taste like morning rather than like dinner, so use more than feels sensible. Toasted almonds go over last for something to bite against, and a squeeze of lemon at the table cuts a clean line through everything else on the plate.
Ingredients
- 1 large eggplant (about 1 1/4 lb), cut into 3/4-inch cubes
- 8 large eggs
- 8 oz ground beef
- 2/3 cup crushed tomatoes
- 1 small yellow onion, finely diced
- 1/3 cup sliced almonds
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp chopped fresh dill, fronds only
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Brown the eggplant: Heat the olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high until it ripples. Add the eggplant cubes in one layer with a pinch of the salt and leave them for four to five minutes without stirring, until the undersides are deep brown. Toss and cook six to eight minutes more, until the cubes are collapsing and give no resistance to a spoon. Move them to a bowl.
- Brown the beef: Add the beef to the same pan in three or four flat slabs and leave it undisturbed for three minutes so a crust forms. Break it apart and cook two minutes more, until no pink remains. If there is more than a tablespoon of fat in the pan, spoon some off, since the eggplant will have given some back as well.
- Bloom the spices: Stir in the onion and cook three minutes until it softens, then add the garlic, cumin, coriander, and the rest of the salt. Cook for one minute, stirring constantly, until the whole pan smells toasted and slightly nutty. Ground spices burn fast at this stage, so keep them moving.
- Build the sauce: Pour in the crushed tomatoes and 1/3 cup water, scrape up everything stuck to the bottom, and return the eggplant. Simmer over medium-low for six to eight minutes, until the sauce has thickened enough that a spoon dragged through it leaves a trail that closes slowly.
- Set the eggs: Press eight wells into the surface with the back of a spoon, right down to the pan, and crack an egg into each. Cover and cook over low heat for eight to ten minutes, until the whites are opaque and firm and the yolks still move when you shake the pan. Check at eight minutes, since covered eggs go from soft to solid quickly.
- Toast the almonds and finish: While the eggs set, toast the sliced almonds in a dry pan over medium heat for two to three minutes, shaking constantly, until they are golden at the edges. Squeeze the lemon over the skillet, scatter the almonds and all of the dill, and bring the pan to the table.
Variations
- Lamb and cinnamon: Swap the beef for ground lamb and add a quarter teaspoon of ground cinnamon with the cumin for a warmer, sweeter pan.
- Feta and mint: Crumble two ounces of feta over the sauce before the eggs go in and use torn mint alongside the dill.
- Hotter: Add a sliced jalapeno with the onion and a good pinch of cayenne with the spices for a pan with real heat behind it.
- Zucchini: Use cubed zucchini in place of half the eggplant, browned the same way, for a lighter and greener version in high summer.
- Yogurt on the side: Spoon cold plain yogurt onto each plate so it streaks through the hot tomato as you eat.
Storage & Leftovers
The eggplant and beef base keeps five days sealed in the refrigerator and improves for the first two, since the cumin settles into the tomato overnight. Store it without the eggs whenever you can, because reheated yolks set hard and the run is most of the pleasure here.
To reheat with fresh eggs, warm the base in a skillet over medium with a splash of water until it bubbles at the edges, then press the wells and cook the eggs covered as written. A whole leftover portion, eggs and all, reheats best covered in a 325°F oven for about twelve minutes.
The base freezes for three months in flat sealed portions. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, since eggplant thawed quickly on the counter goes watery and loses its texture. Warm it in a pan until it steams, then finish with new almonds, new dill, and fresh lemon, all three of which fade in the freezer.
Notes & Tips
- Get the pan hot before the eggplant: Eggplant put into a warm pan stews in its own water and never browns. Wait for the oil to ripple, then commit the whole layer at once.
- Cut the cubes evenly: Uneven pieces mean some are collapsing while others are still squeaky. Three quarters of an inch across is the size that goes silky in about ten minutes.
- Do not stir for the first five minutes: Contact with the metal is what browns it. Every early stir resets the clock and gives you pale, soft cubes with no flavor of their own.
- Spoon off excess fat: Between the oil the eggplant gives back and the fat from the beef, the pan can end up slick. A tablespoon or two removed keeps the sauce clean.
- Watch the eggs from minute eight: Under a lid the whites and yolks set almost together. Thirty seconds is the difference between a running yolk and a firm one.
- Use far more dill than feels right: Three tablespoons looks like a lot in the bowl and disappears into the pan. It is the thing that keeps this from tasting like last night's dinner.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- The eggplant, the beef, and the eggs each carry a different part of the plate. The meat and the eggs supply the protein, the eggplant gives the pan its volume and most of its fiber, and the tomato and lemon keep something this rich tasting sharp rather than heavy.
- Eggplant browned hard turns silky and faintly sweet, nothing like the spongy vegetable it starts as, and the skin left on is where a good share of its fiber and its deep purple pigment sit.
- Ground beef gives this pan its savory backbone in a fairly small quantity, and red meat carries iron in the form your body takes up most readily, along with zinc and B12.
- Eggs set gently into the sauce stay soft in the middle, and the yolk is where the vitamin D, the choline, and most of the color live. Broken into the tomato, it also thickens everything it touches.
- Cumin and coriander bloomed in hot fat are what the whole pan smells of, and the fistful of dill scattered at the end is the note that lifts it. Toasted almonds go on last for something to bite against all that softness.
- As you eat, notice how completely the eggplant has given way and how the dill hits before anything else does, and let the pan sit in front of you long enough to actually taste it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to salt and drain the eggplant first?
Not for this. Salting draws out water and some bitterness, which matters for a long braise or a fry, but here the cubes go into a hot pan that drives the water off anyway. Modern eggplant is bred with very little bitterness, so the extra hour buys you almost nothing.
The eggplant soaked up all the oil and the pan went dry. Should I add more?
Wait it out. Eggplant absorbs oil in the first few minutes and releases most of it back as the cell walls collapse. Adding more at that point gives you a greasy pan later. If it is genuinely sticking, add a tablespoon of water rather than oil.
Can I make it with ground lamb?
Lamb is very good here and pushes the pan further toward the Levant. Use the same weight, brown it the same way, and spoon off more of the rendered fat, since lamb gives up considerably more than beef. Add a pinch of cinnamon with the cumin if you go that direction.
Can I cook the eggs in the oven rather than covered on the stove?
Yes, and it gives you more even whites. Use an ovenproof skillet, press the wells, add the eggs, and bake uncovered at 375°F for nine to eleven minutes. The stovetop method is written first only because it is faster and needs no preheating.