I have been admiring this dish for a while and never realized how simple it was until I cooked it myself. And the great bonus is – it is low protein! Most often you see small portion sized eggplants stuffed and roasted, they do look cute and are a great way to impress your guests but I was aiming for a family dinner option so I went with the larger Italian big fat purple eggplant.
1 large eggplant
1/4 cup (60ml) onion, diced
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp (30ml) sugar
1 tsp (5ml) salt
1/2 tsp (2.5ml) ground cumin
1/2 tsp (2.5ml) ground cinnamon
Wash the eggplant and cut lengthwise. With an ice cream or melon scoop scoop out middle of the flesh, leaving about 1cm thick walls in each half of the eggplant. Chop the scooped flesh and set aside. Place the eggplant halves on a baking tray lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
In a skillet stir fry onion and garlic in half of the olive oil, when onions become transparent add tomatoes and reserved chopped eggplant flesh and stir fry for about 4min. Season with sugar, salt, cumin and cinnamon and continue cooking for another 5min. Spoon the tomato mixture into the eggplant halves, pour over leftover oil and bake at 360F for 45-60min. Serve hot.
Recipe yield: 4 portions
Per recipe: calories 400kcal, protein 8.9g, phenylalanine 336mg
Per portion: calories 100kcal, protein 2.2g, phenylalanine 84mg
The Wooden Spoon 