1. Evan and I are now vegetarians
2. we planted a vegetable garden earlier in the summer
3. we have a lot of eggplant!
Ok, now that that's been covered, on to the main part of this entry which is.....
A DELICIOUS EGGPLANT LASAGNA RECIPE!!!!
We had a lot of veggies lying around the kitchen, refrigerator, garden, etc. that needed to be used up, so we decided to throw together a lasagna. And it was FABULOUS! Evan says he thinks in the future we should blanch the eggplant a little bit before, and I think we should cook the broccoli a little bit before, but we both agree the crunch is nice, so maybe that isn't necessary. Anyway...
First we thinly sliced the eggplant (just 1) and put it on a cookie sheet. You have to sprinkle salt on the slices and let it sit- this will draw the bitter water out of the eggplant and make it nicer.
While that was happening, we made 3 bowls of stuff that we later used to layer.
We just used a jar of tomato & basil spaghetti sauce that was in the pantry. To that we added:
- a whole ton of withered spinach (and I mean a ton, like, 2 of the bags of spinach you get at a store!)
- cubed tomato
Mix together and set aside.
I chopped and mixed together:
- onion
- green onions/scallions
- a head of boccoli
- ricotta cheese
- mozzarella cheese
- 1 egg
- fresh basil
- thyme
- oregano
- parmesan cheese
- salt
- pepper
This smelled amazing. I wanted to eat some, but didn't because of the raw egg. It was hard not to though.
Then, after rinsing and drying the eggplant, we started to layer! I thought my Pampered Chef rectangular baker would be too big, but we filled it to the top!
Layer:
- sauce
- lasagna noodles
- cheese mixture
- eggplant
- veggie mix
-REPEAT
On the last layer we just did the noodles, sauce, and then put shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
We baked it on 350 F for about 30 minutes.
Give it a try sometime! I'm actually glad that we will have leftovers for several meals, it was that good!
It actually looks good, I think it's worth a try. My kids already have zucchini lasagna so may be they're ready for eggplant lasagna, ;) I actually started them from spinach first, then mushroom, then zucchini. I hope they'll like this, too. I find it easier to introduce veggies to my 4-year old twin boys through their favorite lasagna dish. :)
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