Italian Eggplant over Pasta
- Recipes, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
13 Jun 2010
This week’s trip out to Whole Foods Market yielded a beautiful purple organic eggplant! I’ve never cooked with fresh eggplant – only with pre-prepared, frozen varieties. I was excited to get to work with the real thing!
I knew I was going to go Italian with this beauty (thanks to Armando for the suggestion!). I wanted to try grilling it, but rain (like Niemi) said NO! Enter: the ol’ George Foreman grill. There’s got to be a way to make eggplant on the George, right?!
Indeed! So I whipped up a simple cornmeal breading with oregano, garlic salt, and a little chili powder. Then I sliced up that eggplant and rubbed each slice with a light coating of garlic-infused olive oil. I dredged the slices through the cornmeal breading, patted them down, and tossed them onto the George Foreman grill. 5 minutes later, they smelled wonderful! I transferred the eggplant rounds to a baking dish, topped with a jar of organic basil marinara and some Daiya dairy-free mozzarella, and baked for 15 minutes until the cheese melted.
I served the eggplant and marinara over some whole-wheat pasta, and decided I could eat that dish ALL DAY LONG. Mwah! SO good!
Fresh eggplant is SO much more delicious than the frozen varieties! It tasted so fresh, but was so easy to make. And, regarding non-dairy cheese – I’ve tried quite a few brands, all of which have disappointed me. But this Daiya brand – I have found a winner! It feels a bit more moist than typical shredded cheese, but melted and stretched just like dairy cheese, and tasted wonderful! It almost had more of a parmesan taste to it, but that was fine with me. Daiya vegan cheeses are casein-free, dairy-free, have no cholesterol or trans-fats, all natural, and free of common allergens like soy, gluten, lactose, and others. Thumbs up!
I was drooling as everything came together with this meal and as such, didn’t take the time to get a picture – but this meal is definitely going into my weekly rotation!
DetailsPosted: June 13, 2010 at 6:47 pmIngredients
Directions
This week's trip out to Whole Foods Market yielded a beautiful purple organic eggplant! I've never cooked with fresh eggplant - only with pre-prepared, frozen varieties. I was excited to get to work with the real thing! I knew I was going to go Italian with this beauty (thanks to Armando for the suggestion!). I wanted to try grilling it, but rain (like Niemi) said NO! Enter: the ol' George Foreman grill. There's got to be a way to make eggplant on the George, right?! Indeed! So I whipped up a simple cornmeal breading with oregano, garlic salt, and a little chili powder. Then I sliced up that eggplant and rubbed each slice with a light coating of garlic-infused olive oil. I dredged the slices through the cornmeal breading, patted them down, and tossed them onto the George Foreman grill. 5 minutes later, they smelled wonderful! I transferred the eggplant rounds to a baking dish, topped with a jar of organic basil marinara and some Daiya dairy-free mozzarella, and baked for 15 minutes until the cheese melted. I served the eggplant and marinara over some whole-wheat pasta, and decided I could eat that dish ALL DAY LONG. Mwah! SO good! Fresh eggplant is SO much more delicious than the frozen varieties! It tasted so fresh, but was so easy to make. And, regarding non-dairy cheese - I've tried quite a few brands, all of which have disappointed me. But this Daiya brand - I have found a winner! It feels a bit more moist than typical shredded cheese, but melted and stretched just like dairy cheese, and tasted wonderful! It almost had more of a parmesan taste to it, but that was fine with me. Daiya vegan cheeses are casein-free, dairy-free, have no cholesterol or trans-fats, all natural, and free of common allergens like soy, gluten, lactose, and others. Thumbs up! I was drooling as everything came together with this meal and as such, didn't take the time to get a picture - but this meal is definitely going into my weekly rotation! [recipe-show recipe=italian-eggplant-over-pasta]
{Tags: eggplant, marinara, pasta, Recipes}
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Pasta and Bolognese Sauce
- Recipes, Stealth Ninja Vegetables
-
05 Mar 2010
Tonight, after checking out the Hadley Valley Preserve trail for the first time (it’s nice! A 2.5 mile looping trail through prairie), I tried out another one of Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious
recipes: Pasta and Bolognese Sauce (with Stealth Ninja Sweet Potatoes). This one is healthy all around, with a bunch of carrots in there, too!
I suffered a false start on this one, as I got the onion and carrots all chopped up and in the skillet, then minced a couple garlic cloves right into the pot – only to find that my garlic had gone bad while I was away last week. Oh well. Tossed it all out and started over!
Instead of garlic cloves (I didn’t trust what I had left), I used 1 tsp of Garlic Earth Italian garlic salt – an organic seasoning that my friend Becky makes.
Score another winner for the Stealth Ninja Vegetable Experiment, and another winner for all organic ingredients! This one was so tasty I very nearly licked my plate clean. Highly recommended, and easy to throw together.
The recipe serves 8, so I immediately froze half of the sauce after dinner, then portioned the remaining 3 portions in the fridge for leftovers. I love a recipe that I can get some mileage out of!
Adapted from Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious cookbook. This one was so tasty I almost licked my plate clean!
Details- Prep Time:
15 min - Cook Time:
30 min - Ready In:
45 min
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion organic
- 2 cloves garlic organic
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 3 medium carrot organic
- 1 pound lean ground beef organic
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 26 ounces crushed tomatoes organic (1 large can)
- 8 ounces vegetable broth organic (1 can)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 cup sweet potato puree or finely chopped raw sweet potato
- 8 cups whole grain pasta
Directions
Pre-prep: Puree 1/2 cup baked sweet potato (or, finely chopped raw sweet potato can be substituted).- Chop the onion and mince the garlic.
- Heat coconut oil in a large skillet. When hot, add the onion and garlic. Cook 3-4 minutes over medium-high heat.
- Meanwhile, chop the carrot. Add it to the skillet. Cook 3-4 more minutes.
- Turn heat to high. Add ground beef, salt, and pepper.
- Cook 3-4 minutes until the meat begins to brown.
- Add the tomatoes, broth, and sugar.
- Turn heat to low and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- In a separate pot, boil water and add pasta. Cook according to package instructions, 8-10 minutes.
- Add the sweet potato puree to the meat sauce skillet.
- While the pasta is cooking, continue simmering the meat sauce, covered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Drain pasta. Serve with meat sauce.
Posted: March 5, 2010 at 7:22 pm
{Tags: beef, carrot, coconut oil, onion, pasta, puree, Recipes, sweet potato, tomato}
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