Description
This whole-food, plant-based eggplant parm is not all greasy and heavy. It’s crispy, delightful, and healthy. Don’t let the prep time deter you. A lot of that is waiting, not cooking.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1 eggplant
- Salt
- 1/4 cup of arrowroot or corn starch
- 1/4 cup of water
- 1/2 to 1 cup of panko style matzo meal (wheat flour), panko bread crumbs, chickpea flour, or sunflower seeds chopped in a food processor or coffee grinder. This will be your breading
For Sauce (or skip this part and buy fat-free marinara from Whole Foods)
- Wine, cooking sherry, water, or veggie broth for sautéing
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 shallot, diced finely
- 2 – 28-ounce cans of whole, peeled tomatoes (I like San Marzano)
- 1/4 cup of finely shredded carrots
- 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of maple syrup (start with 1/2 and taste)
- 1 teaspoon garlic granules
- 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon of dried basil
- 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
- Salt and pepper to taste, optional
- 1 teaspoon of dried parsley (or sub a tablespoon of Italian seasoning for all of the dried seasonings listed from garlic powder to parsley)
- 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped basil
For Parmesan – borrowed from Debbie Adler’s cookbook, Sweet, Savory, & Free (with some adjustments to the measurements to make less)
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, ground in coffee grinder
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, ground in coffee grinder
- 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
- 3 tablespoons of hemp seeds, optional
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper
- Slice eggplant (I like to do it long, not round), sprinkle generously with salt on both sides (don’t worry, you’ll wash this off later), place on a plate, put another plate on top. Put something heavy on top of the top plate. Leave for an hour or more. This will take the bitterness out of the eggplant and help it to stay crispy. If you really can’t have salt, omit the salt but still do the plates
- After an hour or more, remove the top plate. There should be a lot of liquid on the eggplants and bottom plate. If not, put the plates and heavy thing back for another hour. Then rinse the eggplant slices thoroughly and pat them dry
- In a rectangle glass dish or something big enough for the eggplant slice to fit in, whisk the corn starch and water together to make a slurry
- Put the bread crumbs, flour, or chopped sunflowers on a plate
- Dip the eggplant in the corn starch slurry, cover thoroughly, then coat in the bread crumb mixture
- Place on baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes
- Make the parmesan by grinding the sunflower and pumpkin seeds then mix everything together in a bowl. Store unused parmesan in a jar in the fridge. It will keep for 3 months
- Make the sauce or use a fat-free/oil-free jarred marinara. In a large pan, sauté the shallots in wine, water, or broth until tender (4-5 minutes). Add more liquid as needed to keep it from sticking. Add carrots and cook for another minute or two. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds to a minute. Add the tomatoes, dried seasoning, and maple syrup. Squish the whole tomatoes with a fork. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 45 minutes. Throw in the fresh basil. If you like your sauce smooth, use an immersion hand blender or put it in a blender
- Remove eggplant from the oven. Using a 13×9 Pyrex baking dish, put down a layer of sauce, a layer of eggplant, sprinkle with parmesan, put another layer of sauce, repeat. Top with parmesan and cook for 20-30 more minutes until the sauce is bubbly and the eggplant is tender
Notes
Alternatively, you can cook in individual eggplant parmesan crocks instead of a large Pyrex. I would still do two layers in each crock.
