Eggplant Slices

Eggplant is one of my daughter's favourite vegetables and that's why I use it a lot in my food. In this case, I decided to made some stuffed eggplants and some eggplant slides with tomatoes (another popular in our home), onions, cheese and pomegranate and it turned out better than we imagined. 

Scroll down for the recipe and more pictures :)

Ingredients:

• 3 Eggplants
• 4 Tomatoes (2 chopped, 2 sliced)
• A Handful Cherry Tomatoes (cut in half)
• ¼ of Red, Yellow, Green Bell Pepper (Chopped)
• 1 tsp Tomato Paste
• 1 Cup Oil (you can use olive oil or coconut oil instead)
• 1 Chilli Pepper
• 2 Garlic Gloves
• 1 Large Onion
• 1 tbsp Dried Chopped Onions  
• 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
• ½ tsp Turmeric  
• Pomegranate
• Parsley
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Salt
• Pepper
• Rosemary

Directions:

• Preheat Oven to 250 degrees. 
• Slice a couple of the eggplants in half (if the eggplants are too thick, you want to slice them thinner into three). 
• Use the rest, depending on how many stuffed eggplant you want and cut them in half horizontally, separating the head from the bottom and empty out the inside creating an eggplant bowl. (keep the eggplant meat for the stuffing)
• Sprinkle salt generously on both sides of the eggplant slices and eggplant bowls and set them aside for 10 minutes. (Don’t wash them after)
• Slice the large onion and season it with a pinch of salt, black pepper and rosemary; set aside.
• Slice the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper; set aside.
• Preheat 1 cup oil on a frying pan.
• Squeeze each eggplant in a cloth or paper towel to absorb the water 
• Place them inside the pan and fry until golden.
• Once golden, take them out of the oil and place them onto a paper towel.
• Put the onions with seasoning and rosemary inside the frying pan and fry them until golden. Take them out of the pan and place them onto a paper towel.
• Repeat with the tomatoes: Place them into the pan, fry for approx. 30 seconds and place them onto a paper towel. 
• In a separate frying pan, add 2 tbsp oil
• Add the dried chopped onions, the eggplant meat, chopped tomatoes, chopped bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, chopped garlic, turmeric, salt and pepper (to taste) and sauté for approx. 3 minutes. 
• With the back of the spoon create a well in the centre of the pan and place the tomato paste in the middle.
• Add 1 tsp lemon juice to the tomato paste and sauté for approx. 20 seconds before mixing together with the other ingredients.
• Put a baking paper onto a baking sheet and place the eggplants on top.
• For the stuffed eggplants,  fill the eggplant bowls with the tomato, bell pepper and eggplant mix. 
• Place the slice tomatoes, and the sliced onions on the eggplant slices.
• Put some parsley on top of both the bowl and the slices and place the mozzarella slices on top.
• Put the baking sheet inside the oven, until the cheese melts for about 10 minutes. (Be sure to keep an eye on it in case the cheese melts faster).
• Take them out of the oven, add some chilli pepper slices if you enjoy spicy food and sprinkle some pomegranates on top.
• Serve and enjoy.

We loved the explosion of taste in our mouths; specially the mix of the chilli pepper with the sourness of the pomegranate.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and the pictures as well. I would love to hear your opinions on it and would love some feedback on how you feel about the blog and what you'd like to see next or more of. 

xx

Chehr