Stuffed Baby Eggplants
We have a hard working mate who often has fresh seasonal vegies to share. This morning he dropped by quite early with baby eggplants and silverbeet.
No sooner had he left after downing a cup of coffee than I began to think about stuffed eggplant for dinner. The eggplants were the perfect size to bake whole. Making use of the super fresh bunch of silver beet and only using ingredients I had to hand, the filling was a cross pollination of recipes, the spiced chard filling for filo pastries and the stuffing I used in the Romano peppers a few weeks ago. My supply of fresh tomatoes was depleted, but sweet red peppers combined with a can of organic chopped tomatoes in juice made a delicious sauce.
The flesh removed from the eggplants I turned into an unconventional baba ghanouj.
8 small eggplants (aubergines)
Sauce:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 small red capsicums (bell peppers)
1/2 cup eggplant (aubergine) flesh roughly chopped
1x400g can chopped tomatoes in juice
1 cup vegetable stock
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Cut the cheeks off the capsicum, peel with a vegetable peeler then cut into large dice.
Heat the oil in a shallow pan then add the peppers and eggplant flesh. Cover and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and stock, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cook for another 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Stuffing:
1/3 cup basmati rice
1 cup blanched silverbeet (chard) finely chopped
2 Italian sausages, skins removed
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 tablespoons currants
1/2 cup fresh dill
3 spring onions, green tops only
Sea salt and pepper
Boil the rice in salted water for 5 minutes then drain and refresh.
In a large bowl combine the rice, silverbeet,crumbled sausage meat, pine nuts, currants, finely chopped dill and sliced green spring onion.
The amount of seasoning needed will depend on the sausages.
Use your hands to knead the stuffing to thoroughly combine.
The eggplants:
Cut the stem off the eggplant then cut across the bottom to make a stable base. The eggplant needs to stand up. Use an apple corer to ream out the centre of the eggplant leaving a layer of flesh about 1 cm thick. After adding 1/2 cup of the chopped eggplant flesh to the sauce, make quick baba ghanouj with the remainder. Recipe below
Using your fingers, poke the stuffing into the eggplants from the bottom up, packing it in quite firmly.
Stand the stuffed eggplants side by side in a deep casserole dish, then pour over the sauce. It should come 3/4 of the way up the eggplant.
Bake 180C 1 hour
Serves 4 with salad.
Quick Baba Ghanouj
Roughly chop the eggplant debris. In a small saucepan put the eggplant flesh with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1/2 cup water. Bring the pot to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the eggplant has collapsed. Remove the lid and increase the heat and simmer until all the water has evaporated. Blitz a garlic clove in your food processor, add the eggplant and process to a cream. Add a large heaped tablespoon of thick natural yoghurt and 1/2 cup of roughly chopped fresh dill. Process briefly until just combined. Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.>
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36 comments on “Stuffed Baby Eggplants”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
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This looks just the ticket for dinner tonight..yum
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Enjoy….
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Oh my GOSH. Aaron would love this. Eggplant is one of his absolute favourite things and to have a whole stuffed one to himself? Ah, bliss! I am definitely going to give this recipe a go. Gorgeous photos too x
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Thanks Laura, I’d love to see the improvements you make, enjoy!
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Oh I love this…there is no doubt that this will be gracing our table in the near future. The stuffing ingredients are so perfect for each other… I never thought of filling an eggplant like that….I’ve often split them in half and filled or topped them that way, but this is genius! Absolutely delicious.. xx ❤
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Thanks Prudy, glad you like the look of my stuffed eggplant recipe. Let you know if you enjoy eating them as much…o
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We’ve always split eggplants and topped them, similar to tomatoes Provençal. I love the idea of stuffing them like you’ve done here. The ingredients are a great mix and adding the pignoli will give a bit of texture to each. Eggplant season cannot get here soon enough!
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Thanks John. Just last night I made stuffed tomatoes for dinner left them in the oven 5 minutes too long and they collapsed. No fear of that happening with eggplants or zucchini for that matter if you leave them whole.
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Great improv! And great friend! 🙂
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Thanks Saucy!
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Beautiful!!! I’d never heard of silver beet, so thanks for clearing that up! Your delicious filing is something so similar to what I’d put in stuffed grape leaves. But in eggplant? Incredible!!!!!
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Welcome back Mimi, hope you had a wonderful break. I can’t wait to hear about your time with Stephane. The discrepancies between American and British English never cease to amaze me. The world is such a small place you think we’d be able to easily sort that one out! This was a very successful throw together dish…
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Wow that’s quite the party dish!
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Thanks Aneela, it was a great success
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It took me a number of trips to Italy to appreciate stuffed vegetables they prepare exceptionally well. Now one of my weekly vegetarian mains always is a version of such. Love eggplant, stuff it often, usually using the inside of the aubergine as one of the ingredients as well [Charmaine Solomon recipe]. Love the sound of your version which is a tad more substantial and somewhat more exciting: thanks!!!!
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This really was one of those throw together dishes that really worked. If only they were all that successful! Enjoy…
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It is lovely when a friend calls by with fresh produce. You made done it proud.
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You’re right Glenda, it is wonderful when friends share. Produce gifts heighten my sense of obligation to do the gift justice.
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Lovely as always. You have such a great way with using what you have and creating such wonderful dishes.
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Thanks Seana, this means heaps coming from the Seattle Vegie Queen!!
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They look so good I just want to eat them, what a great friend!
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A wonderful generous friend, it was a delicious dish
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Anytime I come here I find out something to note, hoping to find time to try all the recipes that I’ve noted. These eggplants are mouth-watering, I love the stuffing you’ve chosen. Thanks a lot for sharing!
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Thanks Margerhita, enjoy…..
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So beautiful. Classic tastes and lovely use of ingredients. I enjoy your recipes because they are timeless and not faddish. F
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Thank you Francesca, I cook what I like to eat…
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Stuffed veggies are delicious!!! I love the ingredient combination in your recipe, very creative! 🙂
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Thank you Serena. I always seem to cook at my best with a limited pantry, probably forces me to think
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So creative! I also use an apple corer to ream out veggies for stuffing. In fact, one travels with us to Greece. I may try you stuffing on courgettes, which are my favourite stuffed veg, though Its a pity that it won’t produce baba ghanouj!
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Thank you. It was a delectable stuffing, it would go well in any veg I think. I’ve been reading Mrs Beeton today. Oh boy, does it contain some clangers!
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I have the 1861 (original) and 1907 editions of Beeton – interesting to see the differences in taste reflected between them. I understand the recipes were updated until the 1960s, by which time they bore no relation to the original. Which edition do you have?
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I have the 1907 edition. It is definitely an interesting social history reference, though I’m not too sure about it’s ongoing relevance as a cookbook.
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yum, this looks delish!
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It was!! Xxx
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