An Eggplant Recipe I Love

June 15, 2012 marks my 8 year wedding anniversary to the most amazing, loving, wonderful man. I had such a hectic week that I completely forgot about it and it wasn’t until my sweet mother in law called us to wish us a happy anniversary that I realized that it had completely slipped my mind… oops! Good thing we were grocery shopping so I thought what an awesome idea it would be to repeat a very successful recipe I had made earlier in the week. So here it goes… Just so you know if you don’t like the flavor of eggplant, you can use a squash with a soft skin that’s edible. I am definitely adding this to my list of favorite healthy recipes.

I normally don’t like eggplant, it has always tasted bitter to me and it must have something to do with the way I was preparing it for sure, because after I made this one, everyone in my family could agree that it is the most delicious eggplant any of us has ever had (score for mommy!) 🙂

Eggplant with Roasted Red Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

1  eggplant sliced lengthwise (or large squash sliced lengthwise)
1 tsp fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup Bragg’s Yeast (you can use 1 cup mozzarella cheese instead)
1 tablespoons Fresh basil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 tsp Himalayan salt

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, brush olive oil on both sides of the egg plant, place in a pyrex and sprinkle rosemary on top, add yeast (or cheese), basil, onions and sprinkle salt. Bake for about 20 minutes.

Roasted Red Peppers:

4 large red bell peppers, seeded, sliced in half. Place on the oven to roast both sides of the peppers, it’s okay to char a bit. Once they’re completely roasted on both sides, place in ziplock bag and leave there for 10 minutes.

Tomato Sauce:

4 tomatoes chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp. garlic, diced or crushed.
1 to 2 cups spinach
1 tablespoon Italian parsley finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil finely chopped
(Optional 1/2 cup red wine, although I did not use this in the recipe, it would taste amazing if you used it)

Heat olive oil, add tomato and garlic, stir, when the tomato starts to release some of it’s juice, mash a bit, add the spinach, parsley and basil. When the spinach is completely wilted it’s done.

Take the eggplant out of the oven, cover with the tomato sautee. Peel the bell peppers and slice. Add the pepper slices to the egg plant and serve. So yummy!

Macros (without the wine):

Calories: 465
Carbs: 38 grams
Fiber: 22 grams
Net Carbs: 16 grams (This is the one to pay attention to)
Fat 14 grams
Protein 28 grams
Sodium: 115 mg