Eggplant “Lasagna”

I was craving eggplant and bought one at Stanley’s with the intention of making babaganoush. What I was really craving was moussaka, but I knew I would be too lazy to make it. When I got home, I realized I could make some sort of eggplant parmigiana/lasagna concoction that might cure both my eggplant/moussaka and my mom’s pasta bake cravings as I had just bought fat free cottage cheese and had spaghetti sauce and shredded parmesan in the freezer. I am moving in a few weeks, so I’m trying to work through the freezer and pantry while still getting our fruits and vegetables in. This dish would fulfill multiple objectives!!

A quick search on the internet showed that I should peel & thinly slice the eggplant, dip it in an eggwash, dip it in breadcrumbs (which I also happened to have in the pantry!) and bake it in the oven. I baked each side for 5 minutes in the oven at 350F. I layered my baked eggplant in two loaf pans with freezer sauce (red spaghetti sauce I keep in the freezer that has ground turkey, onions, garlic, mushrooms and other goodies) mixed with green olives, non-fat cottage cheese and shredded parmesan. Because my eggplant was not cooked all the way through initially, I covered the loaf pans with tin foil for the first 40 minutes of cooking. I took the foil off when the eggplant was finally cooked through (fork test) so that the cheese could brown.

This is definitely a dish that I will keep in the rotation, with a lot of room for creativity. In the future, I’ll salt the eggplant first, to draw out some of the moisture which will reduce the water that comes out during baking. I had to bail the loaf pans out a bit after cooking because so much water had come out of the eggplant slices. I would also pre-bake the eggplant slices in the oven for a bit longer (maybe 10 minutes on each side?) so that I don’t have to tent the casserole for so long.

It wasn’t pretty but it was pretty delicious!