Eggplant Lasagna

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, why do Mondays get such a bad wrap? I think Tuesdays are the worst. Come this day I’m no longer coming off my weekend high, all sense of starting fresh has worn off and I can’t tell myself the week is almost over because it isn’t. Nothing went right today, nothinngggg.

Now that I’ve unleashed that, I can tell you what I am looking forward to. Dinner. Big surprise right? Lately I’ve been trying to use the food I have to make dinner rather than buy food for a specific recipe. I find that when I do the later, I end up accumulating a lot of ingredients yet feeling like I “don’t have anything to eat”. One of my favorite new ways of finding recipe ideas? Pinterest. I won’t insult you and tell you what it is because I’m sure you’ve heard about it and if you haven’t, and want to know, you’ll click on the link. Follow me if you want but be warned that I mostly pin food and DIY projects I’ll never actually do-myself.

{this is pretty much what you’ll get if you follow me, lotsa food. get in me.}

Anyway, back to the recipe. Well I knew dinner was going to include an eggplant because I bought a gigantic one at TJ’s over the weekend. I chose the big guy because at TJ’s they are per eggplant not by weight so I figured I should get the most for my $, right? After the success of my zucchini lasagna, I thought an eggplant lasagna could be a tasty spin-off.

Obviously you are now wondering why I brought up Pinterest and then dropped it. Well I found a recipe for vegan eggplant lasagna on there and that’s how we got to this cast of ingredients. Am I vegan? No. Not even vegetarian. I love me some meat. But I didn’t have ricotta and those vegan’s have come up with a ricotta alternative using tofu. And why the nutritional yeast? I just really like the stuff. I don’t use it as a substitute for cheese and never will. There was actually COW cheese on the top of this lasagna but that was an afterthought so it didn’t make it in the ingredient shot.

The recipe can be found here. I’m not going to type it because I didn’t change a thing (aside from de/un-veganize it by adding shredded mozzarella to the top).

{pre-oven}

The only thing I would change when making this again would be to add more nutritional yeast to the tofu-ricotta mixture. I needed more “cheese”. But it was delicious all the same.

*Fun fact: I took the above picture at 640 am on my front porch. It was rushed because a neighborhood cat was hissing and howling (do cat’s howl?) at me and it was a bit early for me to be dealing with that ish.

Hot Mess

No… I’m not talking about myself. I’m talking about this fantastic dinner I made the other night and subsequently have been eating the leftovers from for the past three nights. That’s good for something because this girl usually can’t stomach eating leftovers more than one time.

Isn’t it a beauty?

I kid.

But who cares when it tastes incredible and leaves me so full and satisfied?

Not me.

As a Foodbuzz Tastemaker, I received these three bottles of Crisco Olive Oil at no cost to sample and review. You know I love olive oil, I use it all the time. So, as you can imagine, I was pretty psyched. I was sent Crisco’s Pure Olive Oil, Extra Virgin and Light. As you can see in this picture, I cracked open the Pure. It sounded like the perfect one to use for roasting the veggies in the above dish.

Oh yes, more about that. What you see there is Vegetable Moussaka. Apparently Moussaka is a “Greek favorite”. Anyone out there who is Greek/more worldly than me (probably most everyone), is probably rolling his or her eyes. But listen, I’d never heard of Moussaka and fortunately now I have because this is going to be a regular around here.

Vegetable Moussaka adapted from The Illustrated Kitchen Bible

Ingredients:

• 1 large eggplant, cubed
• 1 medium zucchini, cubed
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips
• 4 T Crisco Pure Olive Oil
• salt and pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 t dried Thyme
• 1 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes, undrained
• 1 15 oz can lentils, drained
• 1 1/4 c plain non-fat yogurt (or Greek if you have it)
• 2 extra large eggs, lightly beaten
• pinch of paprika
• 3 oz feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 T sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss eggplant, zucchini and red peppers into roasting pan. Drizzle with oil and toss. Season with salt and pepper.

Roast for 10 minutes. Stir in garlic and thyme. Continue roasting for 35 minutes or until tender. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Stir in tomatoes with juices and lentils into roasted vegetables and season with salt and pepper. Transfer mixture to a four quart baking dish.

Beat the yogurt, eggs and paprika together and season with salt and pepper (if desired). Spread over vegetables and sprinkle with feta. Place on baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for 10 minutes more, or until top is golden brown. Let stand for 5-10 minutes. Serve hot.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Sweat it Out–Eggplant Dip

I adore eggplant. Maybe even as much as I do winter squash. It’s just so versatile, healthy and tasty. Not too long ago I made a pasta dish using roasted eggplant and the puree was seriously one of the most delicious things I’ve tasted. I remember eating it by the spoonful –straight from the food processor. Then I made this dip and rediscovered how incredibly flavorful pureed eggplant is. And again, I ate it by the spoonful straight out of the food processor.

{Eggplant Pesto Dip}

adapted from Bon Appetit, June 2000

Ingredients:

• (1) 1 1/4 lb. Eggplant
• 1/3 c. Pine Nuts, toasted
• 2-3 Garlic Cloves, peeled
• 2 1/2 T. Fresh Basil, chopped
• 2 T. Fresh Parsley, chopped
• 1 T. Fresh Mint, chopped
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil, for brushing

Peel eggplant and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds. Place on large baking sheet; sprinkle lightly with salt. Let stand 30 minutes. This will “sweat” the eggplant – it is very important to bring out some of the moisture.

Preheat broiler. Rinse eggplant; pat dry with paper towels. Brush large baking sheet with extra virgin olive oil. Brush eggplant rounds generously on both sides with extra virgin olive oil. Place on prepared sheet. Broil eggplant until tender, about 6 minutes per side. Cool.

Finely grind pine nuts and garlic in food processor. Add eggplant and process to coarse puree. Transfer mixture to small bowl. Stir in chopped basil, parsley and mint. Season with salt and pepper.

Allow dip to come to room temperature and serve. Garnish with additional Basil leaves, if desired. Serve with a fresh baguette, sliced and toasted (optional). Or eat by the spoonful (recommended).