Healthy Eggplant Parmesan

This Eggplant Parmesan is a classic comforting Italian dish makes great use of the wonderful purple vegetable. Gooey cheese on top of a delicious homemade tomato sauce with eggplant (aubergine) halves as the base. A great dish to boost your veggie intake, and fancy enough to wow guests too. No breading, no frying, just healthy comfort food!

Whether you call them eggplants or aubergines, they are delicious and there is so much that you can do with them. We love their meaty texture and although they are usually great for bulking out a meal, they are the star of the show here. A delicious tomato pasta sauce layered on top and covered in melty cheese. Comfort food perfection!

Jump to:

• Why should you try it?
• What you will need
• Step by step
• Is it healthy?
• How to stop aubergine being bitter
• What to serve it with
• FAQs
• Extra tips
• More Italian recipes
• Recipe

Why should you try it?

What you will need

Step by step

One: Slice the aubergines in half length ways and make diagonal scores across the insides.

Two: Top with the Easy Tomato Pasta Sauce.

Three: Add the cheese.

Four: Put in a preheated oven at 200°C/400°F/Gas 6 for 40 minutes, until the aubergine is cooked through. Top with fresh basil to serve.

Is it healthy?

Traditionally this recipe has a tonne of cheese and is then topped with breadcrumbs.  We used less cheese, and reduced fat, and skipped the breadcrumbs.

You could also bulk it out with loads of extra vegetables, because, why not?! Spinach is easy to chop in to the tomato sauce and although it is a bit of a random addition to it and I am sure any Italians reading this are screaming at their computer screen, it totally works.

Also, aubergine is a good source of fibre, vitamins B1, B6 and K and also potassium. So, even more reason to make this delicious dish.

How to stop aubergine being bitter

What I love about this dish is how easy it is to put together, however, if you usually find aubergine dishes too bitter, then you might want to add an extra step to this recipe.

To remove some of the bitterness from aubergine, simply sprinkle the halves with a LOT of salt, put them on some sheets of paper towel and leave them there for about an hour. You will start to see little bits of liquid, almost like beads of sweat, appear on the outside of the eggplant as the salt starts to pull all the moisture out. Once the hour is done, rinse the salt off the eggplant and pat it dry and then follow the recipe as normal.

What to serve it with

Well, it is a classic Italian dish, so pasta or gnocchi is always a great choice. But you could just serve it with some protein like grilled chicken or salmon. It's a pretty rich and filling dish, so we usually just have it with a big green salad and some fresh bread.

FAQs

Extra tips

• If you want to make this really crispy, then add some breadcrumbs (panko work really well) on top of the cheese. It will change the nutritional information though.
• Give this dish a veggie boost by chopping up some spinach and mixing it in to the tomato sauce.
• If you wanted to make smaller versions of this, instead of using eggplant halves, you could slice it into rounds and put in a baking dish (with a little sauce at the bottom). This makes it great to serve up as a starter.

More Italian recipes

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