Low Carb Eggplant Parm



It's the last day of April (and my boyfriend's birthday!! Happy birthday my love!), and the last post for Vegetarian Celebration April. I've come with it to provide you another power house vegetarian recipe! One of this half-Italian girl's favorites: eggplant parmesan.

 

There's the traditional veal parmesan (oh hell no!), the lighter chicken parm (my boyfriend's Italian mom's star dish), and the famous vegetarian version: eggplant parmesan. I'm always relieved when I see this dish on the menu when I'm out at Italian restaurants. It's hearty, it's filling, and it's always a winner. It was the first thing that came to mind back in the fall when I had just gone low-carb but wanted a satisfying Italian meal. I knew I couldn't make the usual breaded eggplant parm because I wasn't eating carbs/bread, so I rummaged through my pantry in search of a bread crumb substitute. I had some ground flax and almond meal on hand for some low-carb baking I was experimenting with, and decided to use both as the coating on my eggplant. Brills!

 

The recipe I came up with that night was really tasty, so I decided to make it again and share it with you today. I topped the fried eggplant with a homemade chunky tomato sauce and stacked it all on top of some brown rice spaghetti smothered in pesto. (Yes, you're right: I'm obsessed with pesto. Just go with it!) And I used a slightly pungent soft goat cheese instead of the traditional mozzarella. My meat-eating, carb-loving boyfriend ate this meal - including the brown rice pasta! - and exclaimed that it was the best vegetarian meal he had ever eaten. Score! Of course you can use seasoned bread crumbs and regular semolina spaghetti, but I highly recommend going this low-carb route just to try it. It's really good y'all!

 

OK, let's get cookin'!

 

vorace.'s Eggplant Parmesan

Servings: 3

Prep time: 30 minutes, throughout some of the cooking time

Cooking time: 1 hour

 

I'm going to break this down by component, so keep scrolling for the full recipe.

 

Ingredients:

 

Sauce

4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

1 teaspoon crushed garlic - equivalent of 2 cloves minced

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/4 sweet onion, chopped into chunks

28 ounce can peeled tomatoes

1/2 small can tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herbs

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayn sea salt

1/4 taspoon fresh cracked black pepper (FCBP)

1/8 cup red wine (I used Cab Franc, but use whatever good drinking wine you have on hand)

 

Place a medium sized pot on the stove over medium low heat.

 

Drizzle in the EVOO and add the crushed garlic. Allow the oil to heat up and the garlic to melt into it, about two minutes. Then add the crushed red pepper and stir.

 

Next add the chunky chopped onion and saute in the oil for another two minutes until slightly softened and opaque.

 

Add the entire can of peeled tomatoes.

Use your spatula to break up the tomatoes into smaller chunks, like so:

Next, add the tomato paste and give it a stir to combine with the rest of the ingredients.

[Photo courtesy of my boyfriend,

who thought this picture was really cool!]

 

Sprinkle in the dried Italian herbs, bay leaf, salt, and pepper, and leave to cook over low heat for about fifteen minutes (while you make the pesto and set up for your eggplant assembly).

After your sauce has been simmering for fiften minutes, add the wine and stir.

Cover and allow to simmer over low heat while you prepare the rest of the meal.

 



Basil Pesto

1 cup (tightly packed) fresh basil

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup pinoli, toasted

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon pink Himalyan sea salt

1/4 teaspoon FCBP

1/4 cup EVOO

 

Add all of the ingredients except the EVOO to a food processor.

Turn on the food processor and mix the ingredients until you have a smooth paste.

 

Keep the food processor on and slowly drizzle in the EVOO. You should end up with a thick, but smooth sauce, which I forgot to get a picture of - sorry! But you know what pesto looks like! :-)

 

Set aside while you make the rest of the dish.

 

Eggplant

1 small eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch round slices

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup ground flax

1/8 cup almond meal

2 teaspoons dried Italian herbs

1/4 teaspoon pink Himalan sea salt

1/4 teaspoon FCBP

2 eggs

Splash of milk

EVOO - enough to cover the bottom of a non-stick pan

1/4 teaspooon crushed garlic - or one cloved cracked garlic

Chevre (soft goat cheese) - as much as you want!

 

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

Place a large pot filled 3/4 full with water on the stove over high heat. When it comes to a boil, add your spaghetti and set a timer for the amount of time indicated for cooking on the back of the pasta box.

 

Next, place a non-stick pan on the stove over medium heat. Drizzle in the EVOO and a the crushed garlic. Allow to heat up while you prepare the eggplant.

 

Now, set up an assembly line. First, set up a plate covered in a layer of paper towels that you will use to drain the eggplant when it comes out of the oil.

 

Secondly, include a plate with the cheese, ground flax, almond meal, dried Italian herbs, salt, and FCBP, like so:

Use your hands to thoroughly mix the ingredients together:

Set up a second plate or shallow bowl with the eggs & milk, scrambled together:

Use a fork to dip each slice of eggplant into the eggs, coating both sides.

Pick up the slices with a fork and place them in the cheese/crumb mixture, turning it over to coat each side completely.

Place the coated eggplant slices into the oil and allow to cook on the first side for about one minute.

When the first side is nice and crispy brown, flip it to the second side.

Once each sideis adequately browned, remove the slices from the oil and place on the paper towel plate.

In a large baking dish, place three slices of fried eggplant. Top each slice with chevre crumbles. Then add another slice on top of the cheese. Add cheese to the top of that. Repeat this until you have used up all of your slices:

Place in the oven to bake for five minutes, just to melt the cheese slightly while you prepare your pesto spaghetti.

By now your noodles should be about done cooking. Remove the pot from the heat, drain the noodles into a colander in the sink, and then place the pasta back into the empty, warm pot you cooked them in.

Drizzle the pesto over the noodles and then toss to coat the pasta in the sauce.

Pull the eggplant out of the oven and set aside.

Let's assemble our plates!

 

Place a mound of pesto speghetti in the center of your plate.

Place a stack of cheesy, fried eggplant on top of the noodles.

Use a ladle to pour the sace over the entire stack.

Yum!

Sprinkle with some juilienned fresh basil.

Serve hot with a glass of red wine.

Enjoy :-)

Salute!

Buffalo Cauliflower in a Salad

Welcome back for another Vegetarian April Celebration recipe!

 

Oooh and was I excited to make this recipe! I seriously love buffalo sauce SO much. I would pour it on a piece of cardboard and eat it if I thought it would be socially acceptable - haha! When trying to think of some of my all-time favorite vegetarian meals to share for this month's theme, my mind went to a salad I used to enjoy (OK, obsess over) when I was in college. I went to Coastal Carolina University (go Chants!!), which is just outside of Myrtle Beach, SC. Being a beach/resort town, Myrtle Beach has a lot of restaurants, but as poor college students, my roommates, boyfriend, and I could only indulge in a night out at a real restaurant on occasion. I was lucky enough to have my dad come to town to visit a few times a year and he would treat all of us to dinner (isn't he awesome?!). Once I discovered this salad at Damon's, I made us go there every time he was in town.

 

This salad I speak of was a buffalo shrimp salad. Yum! In college, my palatte wasn't as sophisticated as it is now, and my go-to restaurant meal was a salad and baked potato - pret.ty.boring. But back then (a whopping 10-13 years ago) and especially in the south, there weren't a whole lot of interesting options for a vegetarian at regular American fare restaurants. So this salad was really something special. I love buffalo sauce and it's rare to find buffalo anything that isn't meat, so I was super excited to see buffalo shrimp on the menu, and in a salad was even better! The shrimp were battered, fried, and then tossed in buffalo sauce (much like this recipe), and the salad was pretty simple, made up of iceburg and standard salad veggies, with a handful of shredded cheddar, topped with a healthy dose of housemade ranch dressing. Pure heaven. You can see why I would want to recreate such a recipe in my own kitchen!

 

This being a month to celebrate my 20 years of vegetarianism, I definitely wanted to include this recipe - since I do love salads! - but do so in an all vegetarian way. I keep seeing recipes for buffalo cauliflower all over Pinterest, so I decided to whip up my own version and use that to top the salad instead of fried shrimp. I was skeptical about the buffalo cauliflower and didn't understand what all of the fuss was about, but lemme tell ya: I get it. The flavor of the cauliflower goes so well with the buffalo sauce and it's the perfect platform to let the sauce shine in all of its tangy, spicy glory. I fancied up the salad base for this recipe and included some protein with chick peas and sunflower seeds. I kept the dressing really light (skipped the ranch) and sprinkled in some blue cheese crumbles since blue cheese goes so well with buffalo sauce. This salad was really filling and tasty - I think you'll really enjoy it, vegetarian or not!

 

OK, let's get tangy!

 

Buffalo Cauliflower Salad

Servings: 4 as a side dish, 3 as a meal

Prep time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

 

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower, trimmed into bite-size florets

1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper (FCBP)

1 very tiny pinch of salt

1 head organic Boston Bibb lettuce, chopped

1 spear organic romaine hearts, chopped

1 handful cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 radish, sliced paper thin

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 handfuls shredded carrots

1/3 organic cucumber, sliced

3 handfuls de-shelled sunflower seeds

1/2 16oz can chick peas

1/4 cup buffalo sauce

2 handfuls blue cheese crumbles

 

Dressing:

1/4 cup grapeseed oil

1/2 cup raw apple cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon FCBP

1 pinch salt

 

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

To make the dressing, combine all ingredients in a salad dressing bottle or a food storage container with a tight fitting lid. Shake vigorously for 10 seconds. Set aside.

 

Evenly distribute the cauliflower florets over a non-stick baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place the cauliflower in the oven to roast for 20 minutes, checking on them every five minutes and moving them around on the sheet with a spatula so they don't get burned onto the bottom of the pan.

 

While the cauliflower are cooking, assemble your salad.

 

Place the lettuce at the bottom of a medium sized bowl.

Then pile on the chopped veggies: carrots, cuc, tomatoes, radish, celery.

Sprinkle the top with the sunflower seeds, saving a little for garnish at the end.

Last, add the chick peas.

To prepare for when the cauliflower is done cooking, drizzle the buffalo sauce into the bottom of a small bowl.

At the 20 minute mark, pull the cauliflower out of the oven. They should be a little charred looking and slightly crispy.

Scrape the cauliflower florets into the bowl with the buffalo sauce.

Use a spatula to gently toss the florets with the sauce, making sure to cover each piece.

Add the mound of buffalo cauliflower to the top of your salad.

Use salad tongs to scoop out a bunch of salad onto your serving dish, drizzle with the salad dressing, and sprinkle the top with blue cheese crumbles.

Serve alongside a cold glass of white wine or light beer and enjoy!

Salute!

Quick & Easy Brown Rice Bowl

I just have to say it again! Happy spring! I am so beyond excited that spring is finally here. Winter here in the northern VA area was brutal. I know it was brutal all up and down the east coast, so I can only imagine folks up in Boston and NYC are feeling what us DC-metro areas dwellers are feeling times ten! Let's all take a collective exhale in gratitude for warmer weather and sunnier skies. Ahhhhh...

Because the weather is so beautiful right now, I'm trying to spend more time outdoors walking my dog and taking photos, like I did this past weekend during the Washington, DC Cherry Blossom Festival:

But spending more time outdoors cuts down on time available to spend in the kitchen. Therefore, I've been trying to stick with quick, simple meals and getting as much help as I can from prepared produce and my own food prepping - preparing something in bulk and storing it to use throughout the week in multiple dishes. This is always a good idea, but especially when you're short on time or want to be soaking up some rays instead of slaving over a stove.

One of my favorite go-to store prepared produce items is this Trader Joe's Asian veggie mix. They combine mushrooms, baby corn, snap peas, onion, peppers, and more in one package. So smart! I buy these regularly to make a quick stir fry or to toss into some Thai-style soup. I picked up one of these packages the other night with the intent of making my own brown rice, veggie, & fried egg bowl for my second installment of the Vegetarian April Celebration. I've actually been making a version of this with some Chinese take-out leftovers, but I wanted to try my hand at creating my own flavors and of course, having more control over the quality of ingredients.  I have to say, this recipe turned out to be really tasty and oh-so-easy to make!

For this recipe I definitely took some short cuts with the pre-packaged Asian veggies and prepared brown rice and I suggest you do the same! Grab whatever similar pre-prepared (that is - washed & diced) veggies your grocery store has to offer and go with it. Really any veggies will work in this recipe. I also cooked some brown rice earlier in the week and made extra so I would have leftovers. That's what I used for this meal. Both of these tips cut down on cooking and prep time, keeping things nice and simple.

OK, let's get wok-ing!

Brown Rice Bowl
Servings: 1
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Pan Sauce
4 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon yuzu juice
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 inch fresh ginger (peeled)
4 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice
1/4 teaspoon ground fresh chili paste
4 teaspoons liquid aminos
Pinch of salt

1 cup cooked brown rice
1 handful kale leaves (removed from stems), chopped
1/3 of Trader Joe's Asian veggies mix, which amounts to approximately one handful of each of the following:
-Chopped bell peppers - I used red & green
-Chopped yellow or red onion
-Broccoli florets
-Baby corn, cut in thirds
-Sugar snap peas and/or sweet peas in the pod
-Mushrooms - variety of your choosing
1 egg
Pinch salt & pepper
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Sriracha to taste

Start by placing a wok or pan with high sides over medium-low heat.

Add the sesame oil, yuzu, and garlic paste and stir to combine.

Let that cook for a minute, stirring constantly.

Next, use a microplane or fine grater over the wok to grate the ginger, and then add in the rice wine vinegar. Stir.

Sprinkle in the Chinese Five Spice and stir.

Add the chili paste, liquid aminos, and a pink of salt. Stir.

Let this cook for another two minutes, stirring constantly.

Now add all of your veggies to the wok and stir to thoroughly coat them in the sauce.

Let the veggies cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally.

During this time, toast your sesame seeds. Add them to a small frying pan to toast them on the oven over medium heat, or toast them in the toaster oven for about two minutes, until they've turned golden brown.

Remove from the heat and set aside.

Once your veggies have been cooking for about five minutes and started to soften, add the cooked brown rice and stir it to mix in with the veggies and sauce.

Saute the rice with the veggies for another five minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the rice is cooking, make your fried egg.

Place a non-stick pan over medium heat and add 1/2 teaspoon olive or grapeseed oil. Allow the oil to heat up and distribute to cover the surface of the bottom of the pan.

Crack your egg directly into the pan, careful to avoid any shell pieces falling in.

Sprinkle with a pinch each of salt & pepper.

I like my egg more over medium than sunny side up or runny at all, so I cooked it for about two minutes on the first side, then gently flipped it to cook for an additional minute on the opposite side. For a runnier egg, cook on the first side one minute, then flip and cook the second side one minute. Or do the whole sunny-side-up deal, and leave it to cook on the first side to your desired runniness. Just please make sure you don't get salmonella, k?

Once your egg is cooked, your veggies/rice should be done as well. Turn the heat off on the egg and leave it in the pan until you set up your veggies/rice.

Scoop the veggies & rice into a serving bowl.

Sprinkle with a pinch of toasted sesame seeds and top it with the egg.

Sprinkle again with toasted sesame seeds.

Drizzle the top with sriracha to taste.

 And voila! The most delish, healthy, homemade brown rice bowl you could ask for!

Salute!