BAKED SPICY VEGAN EGGPLANT

In keeping with my attempts to eat healthier for a new year I decided I would come up with a dish that was simply relatively light, using no cheese or dairy. The result was a Vegan Spicy Italian Eggplant Casserole. Its kind of like an all veg lagasgna. Although I am neither vegan or vegetarian this dish came out great without the aid of my old friend CHEESE. I have to imagine somebody else has already done this dis or something like it, but I just made it up as I went.


2-3 Medium/Large Eggplants
6-8 cloves garlic
16 oz Fresh Basil
1 red onion
S+P
Crushed red pepper
2- 16oz “O” Organics Tomato Basil Marinara or Crushed Tomatoes
Plain/ Seasoned breadcrumbs

Start out with a couple nice eggplants sliced them thinly. Next, lay the slices out on a cookie sheet and liberally applied salt and pepper to both sides of every piece of eggplant, so as to ensure consistent flavor throughout the dish.

Mince the garlic.

Julienne the onion.

Remove the basil from its stem.

BASIC MARINARA SAUCE

I almost always make my sauce from scratch, but I was feeling lazy and HUNGRY so I opted for O Organics Tomato Basil Marinara that is carried by Vons/Safeway grocery stores. I must give it to Vons, their O Organics brand is reasonably priced, clearly organic, and well made. I also tried just using crushed tomatoes in place of sauce and it worked wonderfully. Considering that this dish contains many of the ingredient included in a typical marinara (Basil, Onion, Garlic) it really works kind of like a deconstructed and baked marinara with eggplant. There are probably about a billion different marinara recipes varying by one ingredient or another. Food Network’s site is a great resource for basic recipes. I will delve into my own technique at a later date.

Now you are ready to construct the dish. Get yourself a larger casserole pan. Apply a thin coat of XVO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) to prevent sticking. Lay down a thin layer of sauce. 

Then a layer of eggplant. 

Lay down a layer of basil leaves.

Next, liberally sprinkle your minced garlic . 

Another layer of sauce follows. 

Now add a thin conservative layer of your julienned onions.

Repeat the steps starting with the eggplant, except this time, don’t add onions. Now your gonna add a layer of heat with your crushed red pepper. You can omit this ingredient if you don’t like spicy food or you can go crazy if you are a spice freak. Depending on the depth of your casserole dish, you will probably be able to make a couple more layers, ending with the eggplant. 

I topped it off with some plain bread crumbs a dash or two of XVO and S+P.

Place the casserole in the oven at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

Remove from oven. Rest for 5-10 minutes.

Cut Square portions. Serve with chiffonade of basil crushed red pepper (Paremsan cheese… I couldn’t help it!). Serve with garnish of horizontally cut Tomato with stem intact.