This hearty parmesan eggplant bake is quick enough for a weeknight supper, oozing enough with cheese for the kids to accept the eggplant underneath… and delicious enough to be at extreme risk of being eaten before the photo shoot is done… gulp!
Did you ever notice I don’t post too many main dish recipes? Yeah, there’s a reason for that. For one, despite the best of my Meal Planning 101 intentions, dinner planning still usually begins at 4pm with me standing in front of the open fridge, wondering what the heck I’m going to make for dinner. That doesn’t lend itself to easy blogging, my friends!
And secondly, sometimes I make a recipe to blog, and even make 2 pans of it, but don’t specifically say I haven’t taken the pictures yet!!! And then a piece gets cut out of the second pan… ha ha. You get the picture, and now you understand why there are no pictures of this full casserole! I take this as a compliment though. I’d be bothered even more by a whole pan of something languishing in the fridge without anyone even sniffing at it. Right?!
So let’s get onto this eggplant bake. It’s super simple to make, using only 9 ingredients including the olive oil! All you have to do is roast your eggplant (this takes about 20 minutes), saute your mushrooms,
then layer it all up with marinara (I use a good bottled kind, but feel free to make your own) and fresh mozzarella. It’s like a lasagna with no pasta.
The top layer is a combo of mozzarella, parmesan, & nutritional yeast. You can leave out the nutritional yeast if you don’t normally keep it around, but I like the extra cheesy kick it gives. This casserole bakes uncovered in about 20-25 minutes. I usually serve pasta on the side, or bread, and a big salad.
It keeps well and is good cold right out of the fridge. For instance, if you want a mid-day snack or something… but just check and see if someone needs to take any pictures first. Just kidding!! Enjoy, friends!
Ingredients
- 2 large globe eggplants (or 4 Japanese eggplants), sliced into ¼“ (½ cm) slices
- 1 T. olive oil, divided
- 8 oz (240gm) mushrooms, sliced
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 16 oz (480 ml) marinara sauce
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast (optional)
- 4 oz (120 gm) fresh mozzarella, sliced thinly
- 4 oz (120 gm) fresh parmesan, grated
Instructions
- Lightly oil a square (8x8” or 20cm) baking dish and set aside.
- Heat oven to 200C (400F).
- Brush the eggplant slices with ½ T. olive oil and season with salt. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet, and roast for about 20 minutes, flipping halfway through to brown both sides.
- Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms in remaining ½ T. olive oil until browned, adding garlic & Italian seasoning at the end. Set aside.
- To assemble casserole, spoon a few tablespoons of sauce in the bottom of the baking dish to make a thin layer, then place one layer of roasted eggplant, overlapping it a bit (you should use half.) Then scatter half of the mushrooms, 2 T. nutritional yeast, and half the mozzarella.
- Spoon over half of the remaining sauce.
- Make another layer using the rest of the eggplant & mushrooms.
- Spoon over the remaining sauce, then the remaining nutritional yeast and mozzarella. Sprinkle the grated parmesan over all.
- Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted and browned. Remove from the oven and let stand 5-10 minutes more before serving.
- Makes 6 servings.
This looks so yummy! We can hardly wait to try it. What a great summer dinner. 🙂
I hope you love it!! I’ve been making it every week for several weeks now & it still seems like a fun dinner for us. 🙂 xoxo
This looks delicious. I am going to give it a try tonight as I have plenty of home grown eggplants. ☺
Ohhhh, home-grown eggplants!!! How delicious will that be! Yum… enjoy!!! 🙂 xx