Recipes Gone Wrong: What To Do with Inedible Dishes?

Elizabeth Passarella
Elizabeth Passarella
Elizabeth Passarella is the author of the essay collection Good Apple and a contributing editor at Southern Living. A former editor at Real Simple and Vogue, she has spent more than 20 years writing about food, travel, home design, and parenting in outlets including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Parents, Martha Stewart Weddings, Coastal Living, Airbnb, and The Kitchn. Elizabeth grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and now lives with her husband and three children in New York City.
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updated May 12, 2022
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It doesn’t look so bad, does it? Well, trust us. It was. A little cooking by feel experiment went horribly wrong last night…

We had some eggplant, olives, lemons and tahini in the fridge, so we thought we’d make an impromptu baba ghanoush-ish spread to put on some Ak Mak crackers we had in the cabinet.

The problem was, we didn’t have time or energy to roast the eggplant, which is a basic requirement for baba ghanoush. We decided to microwave it until it was soft, then put it in the food processor with the rest of the ingredients. We know, just writing it out now makes us cringe, too.

Guess what? Microwaved eggplant is not good. The dip had zero flavor, unless you count the bitter, soapy taste of raw eggplant doused with salt.

We let it sit in the food processor for an hour or so, wondering if we could turn it into something else. We do hate to waste food, but eventually we just threw it out.

What would you have done? What dishes have you botched — and what do you do with them?

Related: Recipe: DIY Baba Ghanoush (The right way.)

(Image: Elizabeth Passarella)

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