Engorge Your Eggplant

What's good, y'all?

I love eating vegetables. I love putting them all in one dish and enjoying myself a veritable vegetable jamboree. 
(A poppin' produce party, a bountiful bacchanal!) 

So, stuffed vegetables are perfect for me--and you can stuff any vegetable you want, really!

Zucchini. Potatoes. Bell Peppers. Mushrooms.

Stuff 'em all, I say.

Right into my face.

Yesterday, I made a stuffed eggplant which is basically like a twice baked potato, but healthier and also better because

EGGPLANTS TASTE BETTER THAN POTATOES!

Listen to the ponies.

Yes, they surely surely do folks. 

So, I wrastled  myself up a basic recipe for stuffed eggplant and mutilated it appropriately. 

I was happy with the finale.

I love how the edges curl up. Check after the jump for my recipe!

Emily's Engorged Eggplant adapted from the purple foodie.


Ingredients:::

• 1 eggplant
• 1/4 cup finely shredded cheddar cheese (or your favorite cheese, and you can use any amount--this was plenty cheesy as far as I'm concerned!)
• a good amount of sliced baby bella mushrooms (I used around 8? white mushrooms would be fine, but since mushrooms are so delicious you ought not leave them out or replace them for bell peppers!)
• 1 whole vine ripened tomato
• 1 medium Vidalia onion (I think I actually used half a large)
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp dried onion
• salt & pepper, to your liking

Preheat your oven to 400F (200C), slice your eggplant in half lengthwise, and go ahead and stick it in the oven.

(I do this a lot because I feel like it saves time--do you wait for your oven to preheat or are you rearing to go like me?)

If you want to at this point, you can also rub some olive oil & salt and pepper over the eggplant halves, I put a little of all 3 on mine. Let it roast awhile, I let mine go for probably 30 whole minutes because I was busy. You could get away with 20.

Anyway.

Whenever you get to where you're about 10 minutes away from pulling out your eggplants, heat the olive oil in a skillet on the stove & toast your spices*** with the garlic. I did this over medium heat.

(That just means heat them a couple minutes until they're fragrant, stirring frequently and mind you don't burn them!)

Meanwhile, chop your onion, tomato, and mushrooms into bite sizes. Add them to the skillet and saute them awhile.

Pull the eggplant halves out, and reduce the heat on the oven to 350F.

Now, take a spoon and scoop out the insides of the eggplant being

VERY

CAREFUL.

& don't burn yourself

because it's hot.

Add the eggplant insides to the rest of your vegetables, and keep on keepin on.

(I mean, keep stir frying it for a couple more minutes, like maybe 7?)

What's happening in your kitchen.

Finally, stir in your cheese which will immediately start to melt, and that's fine, just try not to let it stick to your skillet. Immediately start spooning your vegetable mixture back into your eggplant skins. If you'd like, you can sprinkle some extra cheese over top now, or more towards the end, or not at all.

Put the whole thing back in the oven, let it bake for 30-45 minutes more, and voila! You have a stuffed eggplant! 

Mine looked like this.

They came out tasty! And you can stuff them with anything--rice, beans, chunked up meat. I have a strange affinity for easily customizable recipes.

These would have been good with a squirt of Sriracha and some sour cream on top, which is probably how I'll fix the second half when I eat it!

***regarding the spices, the combo I used was good, but not great... Feel free to use whatever spice combos you have on hand. Personally, I think some turmeric and cinnamon with red pepper flakes are in order for next time. What would you use?

Nutrition Information

Ingredient	Calories	Fat (g)	Carbs (g)	Protein (g)
Total Recipe	437	24	49	18
Per Serving	219	12	25	9

Recipe above makes 2 servings.