Mediterranean Eggplant and Vegetable Lasagne, without the calories

When I first made this vegetarian dish with Mediterranean ingredients and flavours, I wasn't sure if it would pass muster for my recipe blog, or be tasty and substantial enough to stand alone as our main meal. Well, it ticked both of those boxes, in fact Mr. HRK loved it. So did I, and I felt much healthier after eating it, with all that delicious vegetable within.

Mr. HRK likes most of my cooking, and appreciates the effort I go to, but occasionally he raves about a dish, and very surprisingly to me this was one of those. I have to say I was really amazed, as it contains eggplant, not one of his usual faves. It's definitely one of my favourite vegetables though, just so versatile. 

Using the freshest vegetables possible is the key to a recipe like this one being delicious. Save your older vegetables for dishes like soups, stews, and savoury mince, I'm sure you know what I mean. At the moment, whilst I love to grow some of our own vegetables, it's challenging at this time of year with the Summer heat being very capable of burning produce. However, eggplants or aubergines generally thrive in a hot garden although the fruit can burn if left on the bush too long, and surprisingly my spinach plants, also in this dish, are still coping although they are growing in a semi-shaded garden. The globe eggplant I used in this recipe was given to me by our good friend Paul, who has a hot Northern facing garden where the eggplants thrive, as do the cherry tomatoes. I had a few eggplants of his to use, straight out of the garden, and they inspired me to make this dish.  A batch of authentic Baba Ganoush dip will hopefully use up a couple and then I can feel a batch of Sicilian Pickled Eggplant in the works as well. We also have the long  purple Japanese eggplant growing in our garden which are magnificent for cooking up in stir fries and other Asian recipes.

Serves 4 generously

200 calories per serve

I used a 32 x 23 cm ceramic baking dish.

50 g fresh spinach (also see note below)

50g Parmesan cheese, grated

100g ricotta, or cottage cheese (I used ricotta, but note that it has more calories and less protein but it is delicious in this dish)

1/2 red capsicum, deseeded and finely chopped

200g mushrooms, chopped

1 large garlic clove, crushed

2 tsp dried oregano or fresh equivalent

1 teaspoon dried basil (also see note below)

300ml passata

1 tbsp olive oil

200g eggplant, sliced lengthwise in 1/2 cm strips

12 cherry tomatoes, halved, or 6 larger tomatoes, chopped

50 g cheddar, grated

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200 deg. C.

Select two of your medium sized bowls.

Wash your spinach and dry it, then finely chop it, and mix it up with the grated Parmesan and ricotta/cottage cheeses in a bowl. Season it to your liking. I just love fresh spinach in a vegetable lasagne.

To the 2nd bowl, add the chopped capsicum and mushrooms with the garlic, herbs, passata and the olive oil. Season these vegetables and herbs as well.

Let's layer your lasagne.

Spread half of the vegetable and tomato passata mixture from your 2nd bowl over the bottom of a rectangular ovenproof dish or tin if you like. 

Now add alternating layers of the sliced eggplant and the cheese and spinach mix. The eggplant is taking the place of the pasta sheets. The last layer should be eggplant.

Pour the remainder of the tomato mix over the top and dot with the halved cherry tomatoes.

All done for the moment.

Cover the dish with foil, and pop it in the oven for approximately 30 minutes or until the eggplant is soft when tested with a metal skewer, and thoroughly cooked.

Remove the dish from the oven, remove the alfoil, and sprinkle the grated cheese over the top of the lasagne. I added more than the recipe said, but that's up to you. 

Put the dish back in the oven, for another 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and beautifully golden. 

Serve with a crunchy green salad, and a meat dish if you choose, or even some sliced cooked chorizo. Now that sounds good. I am saving the chorizo idea for another time.

Cooking notes:

• Instead of using fresh spinach, the original recipe suggested also using defrosted frozen spinach, chopped and the liquid squeezed out. I haven't tried this, but I think it should work and is so convenient. However I prefer the idea of the fresh spinach.
• When using herbs in cooking, I like to use fresh herbs from my garden whenever possible, so I used a handful of fresh basil leaves for this dish. However I know that dried herbs can be more convenient and economical. They do the job!
• You might just have noticed that I have taken a few liberties with the recipe ingredients along the way. If you stick to the recipe, the calorie count is 200 calories per serve. However, adding a few extras along the way will affect this. That's up to you. It's a delicious dish either way.
• Zucchini could be used instead of eggplant if you are not fond of eggplant, however zucchini doesn't keep it's shape as well. and releases more moisture
• I had some small pieces of chopped up spring onion leaves in the frig, so I added them too. You might have noticed them in the 2nd top photo, and thought they're not in the recipe. I would have.
• It you want to add some protein to this dish, try adding some chopped cooked chicken, or top it with some chopped chorizo. 
• I find that now that I have made this dish at least once, I am now experimenting with substituting vegetables with what I have on hand. 
• I really don't see why you couldn't add layers of fresh lasagne sheets to this recipe if you have some on hand and wanted to stretch the serving sizes for a family as well. That is what is great about cooking a dish like this one. It is so versatile.
• A small guilty admission here, is that I added a teaspoon of sugar to the tomato mixture to reduce the acidity component. This isn't in the original recipe because it is a low calorie recipe, but that's up to you. I always think tomato based recipes can benefit from a slight addition of sugar.

This recipe is from Dr. Claire Bailey and Dr. Sarah Schenker's 8-week Blood Sugar Diet Recipe Book.  This is one of the books I go to for a meat free Monday meal or when I just want to balance out my intake of calories for the week. It's that time of year isn't it when sometimes we just need to eat a guilt free but delicious meal? There are so many treats on offer, being the "silly season".

I am writing this post in a bit of a hurry. My main work is done with previously cooking this dish, and I am about to make it again today for our dinner. I also want to make some basil pesto to use up some of my very healthy basil crop.

I hope you are working through your list at this time of year, and looking forward to Christmas.

Hope you have a have a lovely weekend.

Warm wishes,

Pauline