To sum up my feelings on eggplant, I’d best describe it as an abusive relationship.

I keep giving it a second chance (it’s had about 30 years of second chances) only to be beaten down with it’s mushy texture and blah taste yet again.

Thankfully, this pathetic pushover part of me seems to only express itself with food and not real life.

But, if I wasn’t a pushover, I wouldn’t have discovered this insanely delicious maple roasted eggplant with hints of orange.

Sweet maple, tangy orange, caramelized little crunchy cubes of eggplant. It’s side dish perfection.

And now I’m convinced that there are two very important factors in making eggplant actually taste good:

1. cutting it small enough so that it gets crispy and there’s not too much of the spongy mush factor in each piece.

2. dousing it with something so delicious you’re tempted to drink the dressing.

In my air fryer eggplant recipe I also take the time to salt the eggplant before air frying.

You could do the same with this oven method. It really helps draw out the moisture and make things extra crispy!

I consider this recipe the start of seeing a really good therapist.

The relationship is not out of the woods, but we’re getting there.

This baba ganoush without tahini is a great way to enjoy this polarizing vegetable in dip form too. Not needing tahini makes it much more accessible.

Sweet and Crunchy Maple Orange Roasted Eggplant

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