Recipe: Naan Pizza with Brinjal Eggplant

I was inspired to make the Branjal eggplant dish that (originally made for my Sri Lankan inspired waffles) when I found this beautiful graffiti eggplant at the store.

I also found some black garlic and wanted to give that a try - I've never used it before, but I've seen it on Food Network.

I decided to make naan pizzas, using frozen garlic naan, and it was amazing!

This was an incredibly quick dinner, because the naan was already cooked.  All I had to do was make the eggplant, then spread some mango ginger chutney on the naan, put some of the eggplant on top, and add a little cheese.  I used a shaved cheese blend from Trader Joe's - a little cheddar or asiago would work as well.

Naan Pizza with Brinjal Eggplant

1 small eggplant, sliced into about 1/2" slices
1 Tbsp tumeric
3 Tbsp coconut oil
1/2 c vinegar
1/3 c sugar
1/2 tsp dried ginger
3 cloves black garlic (could use regular garlic)

4 frozen naan (or use pre-cooked pizza dough)
1/4 c mango ginger chutney (I used Trader Joe's brand)
1/4 c shaved cheese mix (I used Trader Joe's blend, use your favorite mild cheese)

Toss eggplant slices with tumeric.  Heat 1 Tbsp coconut oil at a time in a saute pan and cook eggplant in batches until browned on both sides.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Pour vinegar into pan and deglaze.  Stir in the sugar and ginger.  Once the sugar is dissolved, add the eggplant back to the pan and add the garlic.  If you are using fresh garlic instead of black garlic, add the garlic with the vinegar to cook briefly.  Cook until the eggplant has soaked up the liquid.

Preheat the oven according to your naan (or crust) directions.  For my naan, I preheated the oven to 400 F.  I let the naan cook (basically to thaw) for 1 1/2 minutes, then removed from the oven and spread each naan with some chutney, topped with brinjal eggplant, and sprinkled just a little cheese on each one.  After topping, return the naan pizzas to the oven nad bake for 2-3 minutes.  Serve and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I love Trader Joe's, but they do not sponsor this post or this blog. All opinions are my own (or that of the kids)