Ingredients:

• 2 big or 3 medium eggplants (aubergines)
• 1 tomato or 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 1 medium onion
• 1 tablespoon of white vinegar
• Olive oil
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste

How to prepare, step-by-step:

1. Prepare ingredients and preheat oven till 350F. Put whole uncut eggplants into baking pan, if you decide to use fresh tomato instead of tomato paste put it into the smaller pan and put both pans to the oven. Baking of eggplants may take up to 3 hours, so it can be good idea to start whole process in advance:

   

2. In about 1 hour (or when tomato gets soft when pierce with a wooden skewer) get the pan with tomato out of the oven and let it cool a bit:

   

3. Peel the skin from tomato, cut it halves, remove stem part and chop the tomato in the blender on high speed for a minute:

   

   If you use tomato paste then dilute with a cup of water instead.
4. Mix a tablespoon of vinegar in:

   

5. As I already said it may take up to 3 hours to bake eggplants till needed softness (depends how big and how fresh they are), so pierce them from time to time with a wooden skewer and make sure they are soft equally from each end before you get them out of the oven and let them cool a bit:

   

6. Carefully pick an eggplant, put it under running cold water so it gets cooled a bit and carefully peel its skin:

   

7. Repeat the procedure with other eggplants and let them rest for about 15 mins:

   

8. Warm about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the frying pan over moderate heat. Peel onion, slice it in quarter-circles and fry with stirring until softened (10-15 mins):

   

9. Drain juice from eggplants, remove their stems and chop them finely with a knife:

   

10. Add chopped eggplants to the frying pan with fried onion:

    

11. Mix everything, add a pinch of salt and season with ground black pepper:

    

12. Add tomato and vinegar mix, stir everything, reduce heat to low and continue cooking for 15-20 mins with stirring from time to time:

    

13. Pour eggplant paste into the bowl and let it cool till room temperature, then it is ready to be served:

    

14. Eggplant paste is a perfect side dish:

    

    Or you can simply spread it over a piece of bread for a healthy vegetable snack:

    

    Or serve it on crackers as and appetizer: