15 Eggplant Recipes That Will Kill It on Meatless Monday (2024)

In honor of Women's History Month, we're honoring some of our favorite celebrity BFFs, including ones you might not have known were friends — hello and ! But in my opinion, Tina Fey & Amy Poehler's friendship absolutely takes the cake. These women have been friends for over three decades, and continue to remind me why female friendships are so important. Their latest stunt? A double act! While you look up the closest Restless Leg tour, let's take a trip down memory lane, from SNL to Mean Girls.

Tina Fey & Amy Poehler's Friendship Timeline

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1993 — Tina Fey And Amy Poehler Meet At Improv Class

In the early '90s, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler met at Chicago's iO improv theater. According to Amy Poehler's Yes Please memoir, the cofounder of the theater said that the duo were basically the same person, just with different colored hair! After performing at an improv group called Inside Vladimir, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler started at the Second City comedy club.

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September 29, 2001 — Tina Fey And Amy Poehler Work At Saturday Night Live

After a few years in different cities, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler both began working for SNL. Tina became the comedy show's first head female writer in 1997, and in 2001, Amy became a cast member! Thank goodness, because I don't want to imagine a world without the "Meet Your Second Wife" sketch.

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March 11, 2002 — Martin & Orloff Releases

In their first of many movies together, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler had smaller roles in Matt Walsh and Ian Roberts' Martin & Orloff, which also marked Tina's film debut! Amy appears as Orloff's friend Patty, while we see Tina as "Southern Woman."

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April 19, 2004 — Mean Girls Releases

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler reunited onscreen in 2004's cult classic, eternally-pink Mean Girls. In addition to writing the story, Tina starred as Cady's (Lindsay Lohan) math teacher Ms. Norbury, while Amy took on the role of Regina George's (Rachel McAdams) "cool mom," toting around mocktails and a tiny dog.

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October 22, 2005 — Tina Fey And Amy Poehler Cohost SNL's Weekend Update

Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update is arguably the funniest part of the show, and in 2005 it got even funnier because Tina and Amy became the hosts! The duo reunited as the cohosts ahead of the 2024 Emmys.

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April 2008 — Tina Fey And Amy Poehler Are On The Cover Of Vanity Fair

Along with Sarah Silverman and nine other "queens of comedy," Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were photographed for the cover of Vanity Fair. And on April 25, 2008, the duo's first major movie (Baby Mama) released. The story follows Tina Fey's Kate, a businesswoman who hires Amy Poehler's Angie to be her surrogate.

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November 9, 2010 — Amy Poehler Presents Tina Fey's Kennedy Center Award

Tina Fey won the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2010, and there was no one better to present it to her than Amy Poehler, who described Tina as "a dynamite woman, a first-class lady, an upstanding broad and a straight-up dame" in her speech.

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January 13, 2013 — Tina Fey And Amy Poehler Host The Golden Globes

Before we had 2024's wildly unfunny Golden Globes monologue, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the show in 2013 — then again in 2014, 2015, and 2021. They've also hosted the Emmys! Their friendship is definitely the foundation for their hilarious bits, and even in 2021, when the Golden Globes was partially virtual, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler shined!

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October 28, 2014 — Amy Poehler Calls Tina Fey Her "Partner In Crime"

In her memoir Yes Please, Amy Poehler dedicated an entire chapter to Tina Fey (called, you guessed it, "Partner In Crime") *and* added an acrostic poem dedicated to her as well. "Sometimes Tina [Fey] is like a very talented bungee-jumping expert," she says. "All it takes is for Tina to softly say, 'We can do this, right?' and I suddenly feel like I can jump off a bridge."

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May 10, 2019 — Tina Fey (And More SNL Alum) Star In Amy Poehler's Wine Country

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler starred together in Amy's directorial debut, Wine Country. The movie follows a group of girlfriends who take a (very messy) birthday trip to Napa Valley.

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February 13, 2023 — Amy Poehler And Tina Fey Announce Their Restless Leg Comedy Tour

On Galentine's Day, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler announced they were *finally* going on their brand-new Restless Leg tour together in the spring and summer of 2023. And due to demand, they added more dates for the spring of 2024!

"If this tour goes right, we can finally end this friendship," Amy Poehler and Tina Fey joke in their official statement, via PEOPLE.

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Image via Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

January 14, 2024 — Tina Fey Calls Amy Poehler Her "Work Wife"

Ahead of their Restless Leg Tour, Tina Fey sat down with TODAY's Willie Geist to talk about her friendship with Amy Poehler, saying they "have such an ease and shorthand working with each other."

"But, it is such a paid mom’s weekend," she continues about the new comedy tour. "We go there and we’re like, 'Where should we — I heard there’s interesting vintage shopping,'" she jokes. "And whatever city we go to, we have, like, a nice lunch just like (Chris) Rock and (Dave) Chappelle. And then we do our show, and if it’s a Saturday, we go to our room, and we watch 'SNL' from the hotel room. It's a dream."

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15 Eggplant Recipes That Will Kill It on Meatless Monday (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to cooking eggplant? ›

Eggplants are known to absorb a lot of fat while cooking. A useful tip to prevent sogginess and greasiness is to salt sliced or diced eggplant and let it sit for an hour. This helps to draw out moisture. Next, rinse and drain any liquid from the sliced eggplant, then pat dry before cooking.

Why should I soak eggplant in salt water? ›

Brining can be used instead and has the added advantage of helping the eggplant keep its shape when it's cooked, whether your recipe calls for baking, frying, or grilling. This technique of soaking sliced or chopped eggplant in salt water is particularly useful when making grilled eggplant.

What happens if you don't salt eggplant before cooking? ›

Older recipes call for salting eggplant to draw out the bitter juices, but today's eggplants are less bitter (unless very large), so salting is largely unnecessary. It will, however, help the spongy flesh absorb less oil and crisp up like a dream.

Is it necessary to peel eggplant before cooking? ›

While the skin of a small young eggplant is edible, the skin becomes bitter on larger or older eggplants and should be peeled. When in doubt, the answer to, "Do you peel eggplant before cooking?" is yes, peel it. Use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to remove the skin.

Should you soak eggplant in milk or salt water? ›

Soak eggplant slices or cubes in milk for about 30 minutes before cooking. The milk not only tempers the bitterness, but it actually makes for eggplant that is extra creamy, since the vegetable acts like a sponge and soaks up a good amount of milk in its flesh.

Why do you soak eggplant in vinegar? ›

Why do you soak eggplant in water and vinegar? Soaking eggplant in water and vinegar helps remove some of the vegetable's natural bitterness. This step also helps preserve some of the skin's color so it stays a vibrant purple even after cooking.

Why is my eggplant still hard after cooking? ›

If it's an extra-large eggplant, the vegetable could be older and the skin tougher, therefore, it's a smart idea to peel it. But small, young eggplant have thin, tender skins that add great texture to the vegetable when cooked.

How thick to cut eggplant for frying? ›

You need to cut them into rounds or lengthwise into long slabs so there is at least one cut face that sits flat on the pan, so it cooks through. For Asian eggplants, I just split them in half lengthwise. Thickness – Cut the eggplant up to 2 ½ cm / 1” thick. You'll be amazed how quickly it cooks through!

How to tell if eggplant is bad? ›

If the skin has any cracks or looks shriveled, skip it. A good eggplant will have glossy, taut skin. You'll also want to test the texture of the flesh. When buying an eggplant, the flesh should be firm but give slightly when pressed, then bounce back.

Can you eat eggplant raw? ›

Can You Eat Eggplant Raw? Luckily, the answer is yes! While the leaves and flowers can be toxic, the eggplant itself is safe to consume both raw and cooked, and the compound that some might be sensitive to, solanine, is only toxic when consumed in large quantities.

What are the signs of spoiled eggplant? ›

If it has a dull skin color, it's a sign of poor storage or down right bad quality. Wrinkles are a sign that the eggplant is old and was harvested a long time ago, so pass over wrinkly skin in favor of taut, tight eggplants. Also, avoid brown blemishes or soft spots.

How do you cook eggplant so it's not spongy? ›

“The absorptiveness of eggplant can be reduced by collapsing its spongy structure before frying,” he writes. Which you can do by microwaving it before frying (!) or salting slices that'll draw out the water and close up those air pockets, giving you a firmer flesh to work with.

How to prevent eggplant from absorbing oil when frying? ›

Typically eggplant behaves like a sponge, soaking up heroic amounts of oil when fried. The Terzo Piano chefs use this trick to prevent heavy aubergines: Before frying, soak the strips of eggplant in an ice water bath. They will absorb water and drop in temperature.

What makes eggplant taste good? ›

The oil still left in the eggplant tissues contributes to the soft, buttery texture that's so appealing. Oil also carries the essence of added herbs and spices, so that eggplant dishes can become rich with the aromas and heady flavors of onions, peppers, anchovies, parsley, garlic, and lemon juice.

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