I know, I know: what the heck is going on with this eggplant, right? This is a technique that I learned from making imam byaldi, an amazing eggplant dish, my special recipe for which I will share with you some day. Anyhoo, as with imam biyaldi, stuffing slits cut into this eggplant (which is about to be roasted) with thin slices of garlic helps infuse the relatively bland vegetable with a rich caramelized-garlic flavor. In this case, the garlic-stuffed eggplant was only part of my meal.
As you can imagine, after a week in Mexico of eating mostly unhealthy food, heavy with beans, cheese, bread products, and, above all, guacamole, I was ready to have something a little more wholesome after returning home. In short, I was craving vegetables, as unadulterated as possible. But it was so chilly out, I didn’t think a simple salad would be satisfying.
Not knowing what we were going to make, the Hubs and I went to the market, where I was immediately drawn to some terrific-looking beets with gorgeous greens still attached. Then I spied some adorable baby eggplants, the size of limes (limes!)—how can one resist a tiny eggplant? I saw some fennel, and though I thought the combination of beets, eggplant, and fennel might be getting a little too freaky even for our adventurous taste buds, I decided we were up to it. I rounded it all out with some more flavor-neutral shallots, small yukon gold potatoes, and some garlic. Now, what to do with this peculiar melange of veggies? All these vegetables roast really well, but would they roast well together? I was determined to find out…
I have roasted vegetables here before, so I am not going to include a formal recipe, but basically: after inserting garlic in the trimmed eggplant haves as illustrated above, I scrubbed and cut the potatoes in half lengthwise; peeled and cut the shallots in half as well; trimmed and sectioned the fennel into pieces roughly the size of the potato halves; then tossed all these things with a few teaspoons of olive oil and about a teaspoon seasoning blend from my favorite spice store (Savory, in Denver).
Then I trimmed the beets, reserving the greens, and peeled the roots, which I quartered and tossed with some whole peeled garlic cloves, a few teaspoons of olive oil, and some salt and pepper. (I roasted the beets separately because they tend to stain other veggies they are roasting with purple.) I roasted all the vegetables in their separate pans at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes.
About 10 minutes before the root veggies were done, I washed the beet greens (don’t dry them–the water helps them cook) and sliced them into 1-inch strips. I also cut one reserved shallot into thin slices. 
I sautéed the shallot slices in just a touch of olive oil for just a few minutes, until soft, then added the beet greens and a splash of white balsamic vinegar. I cooked a few minutes more and seasoned with salt and pepper. The greens should be a bit beyond wilted, but not yet dark green (like, not collard-tone) in color. Look at the lovely shade of pink the greens’ red stems dye the shallots!
This was a good light meal. Altogether, it was surprisingly harmonious—the savory eggplant, potatoes, garlic, and shallots, balancing the flavor of sweet fennel and beets. The Hubs thought the beet greens were too sweet (I suppose from the vinegar, I didn’t add sugar), but I really enjoyed them and would definitely make them again. In deference to the dear man, I might next time substitute something less sweet than balsamic, like a plain red-wine vinegar.
These are healthy but satisfying sides to pair with a protein of your choice, or, perhaps, an all-vegetable meal-in-itself for some winter’s evening you feel a particular need to make amends for, say, a weeks worth of indulging in guacamole for three meals a day. Not that you wold do that.
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