Stuffed Eggplant: Light and Delicious
Image by Iana Knak
Let’s talk about another very important meal: supper. Especially over the weekends, I love dedicating some additional time to creating healthy and yummy recipes for me, my family, and friends who come to share the meal with us. A simple but well-served meal always helps you offer a friendly environment, stimulates appetites, and brings smiles to everyone’s faces.
You may ask: “But Iana, aren’t healthy and yummy meals difficult to prepare? Don’t they require hours of work in the kitchen?”
My answer is not at all! Who said that good food has to mean hours of cooking? This month’s recipe, stuffed eggplant, is not only easy, it is also delicious, healthy, gluten-free, lactose free, and makes a gorgeous and welcoming table. Now, in order for you to try it and prove to yourself that you can put a wonderful dinner together simply and within one hour, let’s look at the ingredients:
-
2 eggplants
-
1 pound of lean ground beef or tuna (preferably packed in olive oil)
-
½ onion
-
½ bell pepper, color of your choice (I use red)
-
1 clove of fresh garlic
-
2 ripe medium-sized tomatoes
-
Himalayan salt, pepper, oregano, paprika to taste
-
Tiny dash of extra virgin olive oil
-
Lactose-free parmesan cheese (grated)
-
Zucchini
Preheat the oven to 375F/180C. Combine the ground beef with all the other ingredients except eggplants and cheese in a stainless steel skillet. While the meat is cooking, slice the eggplants in half and, using a knife, carefully extract the core of each eggplant half; this is where you are going to fill the eggplants with the meat. Save the extracted eggplant (we are not wasting food here!) When the meat is well cooked, fill the eggplants with it and grate some cheese on the tops. Put the prepared eggplants into the oven for approximately 40 minutes; when there are 5-10 minutes remaining, take them out and top with the cheese.
Sautée the zucchini with the eggplant core you extracted earlier and serve the eggplants over the mix. A fresh salad makes a lovely side dish.
2 eggplants serve 4 people.
Nutritional facts: eggplants are very low in saturated fat and cholesterol. They are also a good source of vitamin K, thiamin, vitamin B6, folate, potassium and manganese, and a very good source of dietary fiber. Although zucchini is a fruit (truly!), it is prepared mostly as a vegetable. Low in calories, zucchini is a great source of manganese, vitamin C, fibers, potassium, and much more.
