Make your choice: stuffed eggplants with meat or vegetables

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Last Updated on December 7, 2023

There are many versions of this stuffed eggplant recipe. Here are the meat version and the vegetable version. Try also the recipe with rice. It is as easy to make as the ones here. Here is the link of rice-stuffed eggplant Parmesan: minuterice.com/recipes/rice-stuffed-eggplant-parmesan/ 

Eggplants stuffed with meat (try something new and use leftover paleo meatloaf)

For the stuffing

• 10 oz minced meat.
• 1 small onion.
• 2 sliced garlic cloves.
• 1 peeled and chopped tomato (or a few spoonfuls of crushed tomato).
• Salt and pepper.
• Grated cheese.
• Olive oil.
• 1 small glass of white wine (optional).

Preparing the eggplants

1. To begin, clean the eggplants and cut them in half lengthwise. Sprinkle with salt and let them ‘sweat’ for 20 minutes face down in a colander or on kitchen paper.

Then, there are several ways to continue with this recipe and cook the eggplants before stuffing them:

1. They can be roasted in the oven with a trickle of oil on top at 180º for 10-15 min.
2. They can be fried in hot oil over low heat so that they are well done inside. They are very tasty but absorb a lot of fat.
3. They can be cooked in little water with salt until they are tender. They have to be drained very well in a colander and dried with kitchen paper.

Cook’s tip: In the microwave, 10 minutes in an airtight container or in a freezer bag, well covered, sprinkled with salt. This is the recommended method because it is fast, clean and the eggplants are just right and not watery at all.
Once tender and cooked, empty with a spoon part of the pulp to make a large hole and along the entire length of the filling and reserve the pulp taken out. 

Stuffing the eggplants

1. Fry the chopped onion in oil with the chopped garlic. Add the meat until it starts to cook and take color. Then add the pulp from the emptied eggplants, finely chopped.
2. Add the tomato (and the white wine, if you are going to use it), season with salt and pepper and reduce the liquid. If it is too thick, add a splash of milk until it has the consistency you are looking for, thick but juicy. If you want to add more creaminess to the filling, add a spoonful of grated cheese or cream cheese spread and mix. Remove from the heat.
3. Outside the fire, add a beaten egg and mix well if we like the filling to be more compact.
4. Fill the eggplants, cover with plenty of grated cheese and put them in the oven for a few minutes until golden brown.
5. You can also cover with a spoonful of bechamel sauce and then sprinkle with cheese to gratin, but the dish is a little heavier.
6. Serve immediately, freshly made.

Eggplants stuffed with vegetables

Ingredients (2 servings)

• 2 medium eggplants.
• Half a small zucchini.
• Half an onion.
• 2 piquillo peppers in strips.
• 1 small tomato (or 4 tablespoons of crushed tomato sauce).
• Olive oil, salt and pepper.
• 4 tablespoons of grated cheese.
• Oregano or chopped basil.
• Bread crumbs.
• Chopped black olives (optional).

Preparation

1. Cut the eggplants well cleaned, without the stalk but with their skin, in half lengthwise. Make some superficial cuts in the pulp making rhombuses and put them with the pulp upwards in an oven tray sprinkled with fine salt and watered with a trickle of oil. Cover with aluminum foil.
2. Roast at 180º C in the middle part of the oven with heat up and down for 20 minutes. When they are a little warm, remove the center of the pulp, leaving about a centimeter of flesh stuck to the skin. Chop the pulp that we have extracted.
3. While the eggplants are roasting, sauté the chopped onion in oil. Add the chopped zucchini, bell pepper and tomato, season with salt and pepper and let it reduce for 10 minutes. Add the eggplant flesh and bind this filling with a spoonful of breadcrumbs (only if necessary to give consistency). Flavor with oregano or chopped basil.
4. Stuff the eggplants with the vegetable mixture and place them back in the baking dish with the grated cheese on top of each one, and a chopped black olive.
5. Grill under the broiler for about 5 minutes until the cheese is golden brown. Serve the eggplants stuffed with vegetables immediately.

Cook’s tips

• Together with the vegetables of the stuffing, sauté a little ham, or a few cubes of fresh cheese (the cheese is added at the end),
• Other vegetables can be added such as peas or some sliced mushrooms to taste.