Easy and Quick Eggplant "Parmesan"
It is said that to be healthy, you should eat all colours of the rainbow. It's pretty easy to get your greens (broccoli, lettuce, green peppers, spinach, kale, zucchini etc.), your reds (tomatoes, red peppers, beets) and your yellows (yellow squash, yellow peppers, carrots, corn) but how often do you eat your purple vegetables? Probably not very often!
Eggplant (aka aubergine) is one of the few purple vegetables out there but incredibly healthy for you! Some people I know are not a fan of this vegetable due to the fact that sometimes when you cook it, the texture inside can get incredibly soft and mushy. I agree that this can happen, however, if you want to eat eggplant without the incredibly soft texture, eggplant "parmesan" and this super easy recipe is what you should try out!
- 1 large Eggplant, sliced in disks (about 14 or 16)
- Olive Oil
- Bread Crumbs
- Half Can Pasta Sauce
- 1 cup Cheese, grated
- Black Pepper
- 7 - 8 Basil Leaves, optional
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Lay eggplant circular cut disks on a metal cooking sheet covered with tin foil. Brush olive oil on both sides of each piece of eggplant. Once oven is pre-heated, place eggplant in the oven to brown for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, remove the eggplant from the oven and begin assembling your eggplant "parmesan". Your large eggplant should make approximately 7 - 8 eggplant pairs (or 14 or 16 circles in total). Assuming that your eggplant has made 14 circles, cover the largest 7 circles of eggplant with tomato sauce by using a spoon to place sauce on top of each slice. Next, add a basil leave on top of the sauce.
- Next, add a smaller piece of eggplant on top of your piece already covered with sauce. Add some more sauce to the second eggplant piece, sprinkle breadcrumbs on top of the smaller eggplant piece. Grind some black pepper on top of the second layer of tomato sauce and then complete your eggplant with some grated cheese on top.
- Pop the eggplant back in the oven for 30 minutes. Serve your eggplant "parmesan" over some pasta noodles and enjoy!
Notes:
- Make sure when you cut your eggplant slices you have an even amount of eggplant disks so that each eggplant can be paired up with its smaller counterpart.
- You'll notice I have placed "Parmesan" in quotation marks throughout the article - This is because you don't necessarily have to use parmesan for this recipe. In my case, because I do not typically purchase fresh parmesan, I have used some marble cheese that I have grated on top (mozarella or cheddar work well too). In the end, the cheese will melt on top and slightly brown and have that delicious melted cheese taste.
And there you have it - a super easy and quick eggplant "parmesan" recipe that will allow you to get your intake of a purple vegetable (eggplant) and make you and your family come asking for seconds!
Eggplant "Parmesan" Ingredients
First Layer of Eggplant Disks
Eggplant "Parmesan" - Second Layer
