Could eggplant be the next avocado toast? Learn just how easy it is to slice, season, top and enjoy this beautiful vegetable. - McCormick Test Kitchens

I struggle with eggplant.

They're smooth and svelte, green-hatted, some tiny and some massive, occasionally zebra-striped, occasionally twisted up like boa constrictors or question marks. And I always think they require so much of me and my time. If I have to salt something before cooking it, or painstakingly bread and fry a million slices, I begin to lose interest. And besides, what if, after all that, it turns out slimy? Or bitter? Or becomes an oil sponge?

I know I'm not alone—Sarah Jampel wrote of the salting question (When a recipe calls for salting, "you groan! You drag out the colander! You sometimes don't oblige at all."); Alexandra Stafford praised a recipe—Ruth Reichl's Balsamic-Roasted Eggplant and Arugula Sandwiches that made her believe eggplant could be an unfussy vegetable after all.

Our community member Molly Bernstein did the same for me: She makes cooking eggplant for dinner sound as simple as slicing a tomato onto mayo-slicked toast. All she did, as chronicled on our (Not)Recipes app? Roast an eggplant (about 450° F would do the trick) until creamy-soft inside (no salting required!), halve it, and pile on what she had on hand: sautéed ground lamb, tahini, a flurry of parsley. It looks Ottolenghi-worthy, without the Ottolenghi-level commitment to a cooking project.

Molly Bernstein 3 days ago 4

Roast a whole eggplant till soft inside, throw some sautéed ground lamb, tahini, fresh parsley, and rock salt on top. Next time I want to add pomegranate seeds and pine nuts

• lamb
• pine nuts
• rock salt
• parsley
• tahini
• pomegranate seeds
• eggplant

It makes me want to go out and buy an eggplant myself! I'll either leave it whole, as she does, or spoon out the flesh and use it as a base for about a thousand toppings. It almost could serve the same purpose as a soft, warm swirl of polenta—not filling the same buttery, corny void, of course, but a creamy blank canvas all the same.

Here are a few more ways to top it:

• Toasty roasted chickpeas, chorizo, goat cheese, and pickled onions
• Tahini, yogurt, fresh chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, sauerkraut
• Soy-saucy tofu, pan-fried or raw, with sliced green onions and lots of sesame seeds
• Cauliflower roasted with paprika, capers, salsa verde
• Roasted corn and tomatoes, ricotta salata, parsley, red pepper flakes

This article was written by Caroline Lange from Food52 and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.