Stuffed Eggpant

[Simona19]

As I mentioned in other thread, I had unexpected company on Friday. Three people showed up for barbeque, but I didn't want to eat hot-dogs again, so I made this instead. I thought, that I will eat it for week, but it was gone in an instant.

I found similar recipe online - Slovak recipes Open Original Shared Link - different stuffing and I made it my own. So here it is:

1 eggplant

olive oil

1 pound ground beef

1 egg

1 teaspoon dry basil

1 teaspoon salt for beef mixture

salt for ragu

1 Tbsp. dry garlic

2 cups of fresh spinach

1 big red onion

2 Italian peppers

3-4 tomatoes

1. Cut onion in half. Sautee one half for 2 minutes, add pepper sliced on round wide strips (just cut whole pepper on 1/2 inch strips, it will give you rings) and sautee for 3-4 minutes. When done, mix in sliced tomatoes (cut 1 tomato on the 8 even parts- cut in half and make 4 wedges from it). Place the vegetable ragu in a baking dish. Sprinkle with salt

2. Wash eggplant very good. Cut it lengthwide on thin long slices (proximately 1/5 of inch, or 0.5 cm). Roast it with a plenty of oil on both sides until nicely soft. Eggplant will absorb a lot of oil, so add more when you need.

3. Sautee other half of red onion, when done mix with the ground beef. Add basil, garlic, salt, egg and mix everything together.

4. Take proximately 2-3 Tbsp. of the beef mixture and place on one end of eggplant and roll it around. Place the roll on top of ragu. Continue until you cover all baking dish. If you have any leftovers, just put them between rolls. Bake it on 420F for 30-40 minutes.

In meantime cook rice -white, brown, wild. Spread it over a plate and place 2 rolls in middle, sprinkle with juices. Eat with fresh salad, or pickles.

I made salad from 1 Italian pepper, 1 cucumber, 4 carrots, 3 scallions, 1/2 of leek, olive oil and salt

Cut Italian pepper on thin strips, cut leek lengthwide in half an then cut on thin round strips, cut scallions. Peal cucumber and carrots, wash them good and then with the same peeler make from them wide thin noodles. Mix everything together, add olive oil and salt. Let it sit for 30 minute before serving. Its very good.

[freeatlast]

Wow! This looks and sounds incredibly awesome. Thanks for sharing.

[Simona19]

  On 7/16/2012 at 2:15 PM, freeatlast said:

Wow! This looks and sounds incredibly awesome. Thanks for sharing.

It was awesome and a big hit. This is also a very quick meal. I will make it from now on more often.

Who can eat cheese, can add into the beef mixture little be of parmesan cheese, or 1 cup shredded mozzarella, cheddar, or Monterey jack cheese.

[cyberprof]

Looks good!

Do you cook the beef before rolling it up or does it cook in the oven like meatloaf?

What do you do with the spinach in the recipe?

[Simona19]

  On 7/16/2012 at 6:09 PM, cyberprof said:

Looks good!

Do you cook the beef before rolling it up or does it cook in the oven like meatloaf?

What do you do with the spinach in the recipe?

No, I didn't cook the ground beef before. It will cook like meatloaf. The amount in one roll is proximately 1/2 of hamburger, so it will cook very fast.

I just washed the spinach and mixed with the beef- no chopping. If you don't have the fresh spinach, use frozen one.