Whenever I head out to the grocery store or the farmer’s market, my daughter always reminds me to pick up an eggplant.
I remember my mother stopping by the farmer’s market on her way home from work on Friday afternoons when I was a little girl. She always brought home an eggplant for my grandmother to transform into eggplant parmesan.
This vegetable is so versatile. We enjoy it cut up and thrown into stir fry, breaded, smothered in cheese and sauce, or stuffed with meats and veggies. Try our eggplant curry for a spicy and flavorful kick to your next dinner.
There is not anything you can’t do with an eggplant.
Really, it is delicious however you prepare it!
- 1 large eggplant
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup fresh basil chopped
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped
- 1 1/2 cup grated pecorino romano cheese
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cut the eggplant in half and scoop out the center.Make sure you leave enough flesh inside the skin in order for the vegetable to keep its shape when it is baked.
- Transfer the scooped out flesh into a medium saucepan with 1 tablespoon of oil. Cook, stirring constantly until softened.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a medium pan and add the ground beef. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook, breaking up the meat, until the meat has browned. Drain the beef and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix the eggplant, vegetables, meat, herbs, cheese, breadcrumbs, and egg.
- Place the eggplant halves in an oiled baking pan.
- Fill the halves with the stuffing and top with the diced tomatoes and the remainder of the cheese.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 60 minutes
About Jennifer Swartvagher
Jennifer is an experienced journalist and author. Her work has been featured on TODAY Parents, The New York Times Blog, BlogHer, Scary Mommy, and scores of other parenting and cooking publications.
I have never had egg plant before but would like to give it a try. These recipes and photos look tempting to me. As a matter of fact, I’m not even sure if there is a farmer’s market in my area. I’ll have to look that up.
Eggplant is a favorite of mine. I love eggplant parmigiana, but it is sometimes too much work for the time I have available. Last year, I began grilling it, which is much faster, and delicious, but also time consuming, since I have a charcoal grill. I love the idea of combining the meat and other vegetables with the scooped out eggplant, and stuffing it. This is one recipe I am planning to try, as soon as I’m able to buy the ingredients.
I always have trouble keeping my eggplant in one piece when stuffing it. I guess I’m carving it too think or being too rough when filling it. Most of the time I simply fry sliced up eggplant on a pan and eat it with other veggies, but this would work pretty nicely as a side dish in a party. Or maybe you could combine this with a bit of the bean salad posted earlier to make colorful and healthy full meal.
I bought an eggplant at the local grocery last Sunday and I must confess, I did not know how best to cook it, luckily a good neighbor came to the rescue and asked me to add butternut to the mix with some ripe tomatoes, it was scrumptious…most memorable meal I’ve had in years…back to the topic at hand…I’ll definitely bookmark this page for future reference…I don’t want to have an eggplant in my hand and an absolute blank stare and no idea on what to do with it. 🙂
I don’t have enough eggplant in my life. I used to eat it quite frequently a few years back and you’re right, it’s so delicious and versatile. I’d love to try this recipe with chicken or ground turkey.
I agree, even though I don’t have many recipes for it, I really like it. It’s nice to see another way to make it. I’ve generally gone with the Parmesan, but this looks tasty.
Italian sausage would be delicious for this, but that kind of slams the idea of making this a healthy choice, lol. I think ground turkey would work nicely.
The humble eggplant was a big tradition in my family too. In fact, my grandpappy grew and sold them. They were always the best ones in town. He used to give us the ripest ones. We made soup out of them usually. That’s not the most creative way to cook them, but then my mother wasn’t a very good cook.
I’m very glad I found this recipe. I’m embarking on a healthy diet so I will definitely give it a try soon. It will be nice to have this wonderful legume in my life again. Thanks Jennifer!
I don’t know what it is about foods that are “stuffed”, but i just can’t get enough of them! I have to admit that I have never really experimented with eggplant before. I have made (and LOVE) Eggplant Parmesean, but beyond that I’ve never thought of any other way to use it. This recipe reminds me of Chile Rellenos, which is pretty much my favorite food. I will definitely be cooking this in the next few days. Sounds amazingly delicious. Thanks for sharing!
This looks interesting. Eggplant is so good for you. I love to make pizza out of it and it is so juicy. I never thought about stuffing it. I am going to have to try this. There are so many different things you can stuff it with too. I think I have most of these ingredients. One or two of these would be enough. If it was all vegetables you could eat three or four of them. I need a gluten free bread crumb. I guess I could just take some dried out gluten free bread and make it out of that. I usually have the brown rice or tapioca bread. My friend would go at this with a ground turkey meat or even mix the two meats together.
I’ve only ever used an eggplant (or aubergine as we call them in the UK) when making moussaka. I had never thought to stuff them before and this minced meat filling does look tasty. I’d like to give this one a try as soon as I find some quality veggies for sale – thanks!
Eggplants are one of those vegetables that I always hear about, but have never tried for myself. I didn’t actually know that it was so versatile; that link included in the article was an interesting read to scroll through, who knew it could be used so many ways? The only way to use it that I’ve never heard of before today was parmesan, so seeing all the ideas – especially this one, which sounds amazing – makes me want to give it a try for the first time. I’ll be the first to admit that prefer carnivorous eating rather than sticking to plants, so I love the idea of adding meat to this. Seems like it would be a good mix, getting the best of both worlds in there. I’m for sure giving this a try if I find myself getting my hands on the ingredients one of these days.
Ah aubergine! Such a wonderful vegetable, but absolutely terrible if it’s not prepared well. I really want to try this, but maybe some fish or more veg instead of meat, although, the meat sure does look veeeery tempting!
I’ll probably give this one a go without the beef. When I was younger I hated eggplant, as I always thought of it as a tasteless and bland vegetable. I tried it again a few days ago, and it’s such a great vegetable if it’s made well! I tried a different kind of stuffed eggplant recently – it had just mushrooms, cheese and breadcrumbs (I love mushrooms). This one looks great too, and I think I may add some diced mushrooms in here.
Oh man. I just read the rigatoni bolognese recipe the other day and commented about how I love eggplant but how always run out of ideas for how to cook it…especially once my garden starts pumping them out. This one is definitely going on my list. I didn’t even know this was possible. I actually just ate stuffed peppers the past two nights, which came out awesome, but I think I’d definitely prefer this once I try it.
Thanks for the eggplant (or aubergine, as we call them in the UK) recipe. I really enjoy them but always seem to be stuck for ideas beyond vegetable lasagnas and gratins. New ideas for ground beef are always welcome to people on a budget too.
Argh! I was just at the grocery earlier and I eyed some good looking eggplants. Unfortunately, I decided against putting some on my cart as I was thinking that I’ll be doing a lot of errands in the couple of days and will be out of town next week. I thought, no veggies as I might not have time to cook, and it would be a waste if they rot. Now, looking at this recipe just made me regret not getting those eggplants. I love eggplants and I believe this is something that I can do. Darn. Maybe next time. Definitely when I return from the trip.
You’re so right, eggplant is very versatile and certainly is yummy. About 8 years ago, a lady in the grocery store saw me picking up some eggplant, and she came over and wanted to know how to cook it. I smiled and told her, that she could fry it, bake it, grill it, and etc. She was amazed that it could be cooked so many ways, and because I shared that info with her, she wasn’t afraid to try it out.
This recipe is absolutely delicious. I have been trying to find ways to serve it for my family, but eggplant pizza was the only thing they seemed to like. I tried making this for them and they loved it. I hope you will put up more recipes for this vegetable because I personally love it but no one else here seems to like it.
I have to agree about the versatility of this vegetable, I’ve tried it in almost every way and I loved every version. They taste good even if you simply boil them and put some oil, vinegar and oregano on them. I need to try your recipe, it sounds and looks delicious and I’ve never thought about stuffing regular eggplants, in my country we use to stuff the smaller variety and cook them in a tomato based sauce. Thank you, your recipe will make my husband happy!
These look phenomenal! I am a huge fan of studding veggies with ground meat, but the usual stuffed pepper, zucchini, and tomatoes get old. Honestly, I am kind of surprised that I never considered stuffing an eggplant considering that it is one of my favorite veggies. Gonna grab an eggplant next grocery trip. Looks like a keeper recipe!
Mmm. Tasty. I agree about eggplant being really versatile. I love its mild creamy flavour and it does go with most things. I’d not thought of stuffing one – it’s a nice take on a ratatouille. Makes it sort of inside out! One of my favourites is to lay a whole eggplant on its side in a dish, then slice into 3/4 inch slices almost down to the skin at the bottom. Take a mozzarella, slice it and place the slices in between the eggplant slices – kind of like putting toast in a toast rack. Then bake it, and it’s yummy.