In an age where we are actively encouraged to cook more from scratch and eat more vegetables, Tesco has decided to discontinue the aubergine!
A staple of vegetarian cooking, it has been removed from stores indefinitely!
I think this is completely ridiculous.
Surely Tesco should be promoting fresh produce, rather than streamlining it?
That’s weird. Does that mean they’ve upset their providers so much that they’ve pulled out of supplying Tesco?
To be honest I boycotted Tesco years ago when I became aware of how evil they are. Haha
I’ve had 5 of my seeds come up and at somepoint when they are bigger they will end up in the greenhouse down the allotment - not sure I’ll be growing enough to supply tesco but I should be ok come the summer.
Yah no more aubergine I can’t stand the thing and I’m a vegetarian 
I’ve noticed they are always trying to get rid of them in our Tesco’s no one seems to like them.
When I was growing up in Hereford, there was a very posh grocers that sold things like pheasants (unplucked) and hares (which hung upside down with little red buckets on their heads) . They also sold exotic things like aubergines, which my Mum told me were “eggplants”. I thought they were beautiful, but I never dreamt I’d ever eat them!..
I do shop at Tesco sometimes, but I’m not “loyal”! There are plenty of other shops I’m happy to use for my eggplants 
Noooooo! I like aubergines 
Much nicer than courgettes.
Well, Tesco may have bumped off the aubergine, but Sainsbury will still deliver one to me
I’m with you on that one Eileen.
I love fruit and veg but I can’t stand aubergines.
Me too! I’m a veggie, but no way will I eat aubergines! Or sprouts!
Oh please don’t get me started with Tesco! Each week they seem to discontinue at least 1 item from my shopping list! I have to travel 20 miles to get to a different supermarket so I’m not a happy bunny 
But why discontinue aubergines? strange as they are so popular x
I went shopping a couple of days ago and I’m sure I saw some then!
What a shame if they don’t stock them. OK they need a bit more preparation than peppers do, but they are essential ingredients in Moussaka and Ratatouille. Philistines!!!
Love Sam x
Perhaps you are not preparing them properly @EileensCraftStudio, @plainprimitives, @RhiannonRoseJewellery? An aubergine needs first to be sliced, sprinkled with salt and then stood in a colander to remove the bitter juices that ruin the flavour. Once the juices have leached out (they are brown, so it’s easy to see when it has worked) then you squeeze and dry the slices and cook them. When prepared this way they are sweet and delicious and slightly reminiscent of courgettes.
Love Sam x
I’ve tried them done in many different ways but I can’t stand them texture and taste yukkie.
Trust me, I know how to prepare them. I just think they are disgusting!
@SamanthaStanley
Now I see where you are going wrong… You’re prepping your aubergines so they taste like (yuk) courgettes!!!
For me, cut into 1" slices and quarter each slice. Place in roasting tin with big chunky-cut onion, halved tomatoes, quartered mushrooms, dried French herb mix, drizzle of olive oil. Bake for 15-20 mins at 200c. I’m not a veg lover but I can willingly eat this.
I’m NOT wrong @HartAndCraft! I’m an experienced cook who has worked in the restaurant trade. This is the traditional way to prepare Moussaka and Ratatouille. These are layer bakes. If you quarter the aubergine then you cannot layer with it. I never apply salt to courgettes. They do not require it. You may have less sensitive taste buds and are not able to taste the bitterness of the juices when they are cooked into the fruit. Some people are just less able to taste bitter flavours than others.
Sam x
If you have an issue with texture sadly there’s no way to get over that 
I just think that it’s sad that Tesco is reducing the breadth of its range which will stop many people from trying new things. It may be that things like asparagus, artichokes and rhubarb divide opinion, but they should let people buy them if they want to.
Love Sam x
@SamanthaStanley and @HartAndCraft - I know where you’re both going wrong, you need to get your hands on some of the white with purple stripe aubergines that I grow (rosa bianca I think). They make excellent rat with the yellow courgettes I grow and are superb in roasted veg (with the toms from the poly tunnel, some of the sweet dumpling squashes and a red onion with a dash of olive oil), I’ve never bothered to salt them and I can’t taste any bitterness on them (something I’m normally quite sensitive to). Its a shame that the heritage/ unusual varieties are so difficult for people to get hold of as (in my opinion anyway) they taste soo much better, sometimes I think that the taste has been bred out of veg in favour of higher yields to keep the supermarkets happy and costs down. (but after the allotment had two years of bad tomato blight across the entire site I do see a reason for breeding in a bit of disease resistance)
Lol @SashaGarrett! Given the theme of this thread I think it’s highly unlikely that Tesco’s will start stocking the heritage varieties of aubergine (although I wish they would). If the high yielding ones aren’t profitable enough for them then I can see more types of fruit and veg going down the same path. I wish I had an allotment and the time to get up there and grow some really nice veg, but I will have to wait for that
I’m forced to live in a town where Waitrose is the only alternative supermarket to Tescos and over the years I’ve noticed a pattern in the way they operate. They frequently discontinue products that are loved by a few people but not by the majority (smooth apricot jam for icing cakes, Colliers Cheddar, I can’t think of all of them because something disappears about once a month). If the people who normally buy them start buying a more profitable (often not as nice) alternative then the discontinued disappears. If they lose those sales completely then it magically reappears. It happens so often it can’t be a co-incidence.
As you can imagine, I don’t like being manipulated in this way and I have taken steps. I now make a weekly trip into town to go to a selection of independent shops and for the more supermarkety things I need I try to go to Lidl or Wilkinson. Parking is not convenient, but I’ll walk with my bags for at least a mile not to have to buy all of my shopping at Tesco’s.
This is why I’ve been enjoying commenting on this thread-because it’s nice to know I’m not actually paranoid and they are out to get you.
Love Sam x
Given how mutant most of my veg ends up looking I don’t think I could get any supermarket to stock it! I’m all for supporting the local growers/ sellers for the stuff I can’t grow myself, we have excellent farm shops around here and the cycle out to them can be quite pleasant (and an excellent excuse for all the food that we end up buying) so I like to support them whenever possible. The supermarket only gets visited for things like bread flour and toilet paper, I think the last time I strayed into a Tescos was to use the toilets whilst out on a bike ride to a farm shop but we won’t tell them that. We have several commons in Cambridge where it is written in the deeds (or what ever the document is called) that farmers have to be allowed to graze their animals (normally cows) on them, our local butcher stocks the meat at the appropriate time of year which we buy as it is a) tasty, b) it encourages him to stock the unusual stuff and c) it feels like revenge for all the times the cows stray onto or leave cow pats on the cycle paths criss-crossing the commons (maybe they know about it and the pats are their revenge).