The Eggplant Lasagna

Roll up your sleeves for this one. This is a veggies packed recipe, that takes time! Book your kitchen out, cause you’re making the best dish ever.

Oday is a big eggplant lover. Out of all things right? He absolutely loves it, and we have created some pretty amazing eggplant recipes. Another fav is our Eggplant Pizza ! Substitute the crust for pizza and you have a delicious healthy gluten free pizza!

This is delicious, and such a great substitute to pasta. I use eggplant over zucchini because I find when you cook zucchini it’s too moist. Here it goes!

There’s a lot of steps in this one, so let’s get started.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. To begin, let’s wash and prep all the veggies.
3. To Prep The Eggplant:

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   1. Wash the eggplant, and slice it up. You’ll want to slice it vertical, into circles.
   2. Remove the head with the thick green leaf attached. Don’t cut the circles to thick or they won’t cook through. Try for about half a centimetre, keeping it consistent throughout.
   3. Once we get the eggplant in the oven, we’ll prep the other ingredients going into the sauce.
   4. Lay out some parchment paper on a baking tray.
   5. Drizzle the olive oil over the sheet, and put a dash of salt on it. The recipe calls for 3 tbsp olive oil, you want to use half a tbsp here.
   6. Lay out the eggplant. Fill up the baking sheet! It’s ok if they’re touching a bit.
   7. Now you’re going to sprinkle all your spices. Start with the olive oil, drizzle on top of the eggplant sheet, use the other half of the tbsp.
   8. Once that is done, sprinkle half tsp of each salt, pepper, basil and oregano.
   9. Place in oven at 375 degrees, and cook for 22 minutes. NOTE: Eggplant is a thick vegetable that takes time to cook. We put it in the oven twice in this recipe to make sure it’s cooked throughout.
4. While the eggplant is roasting, we’re going to start the sauce:

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   1. Mince your onion and garlic. Set aside.
   2. Wash the mushrooms and peppers, and chop them up.
   3. Wash your kale and parsley, chop them once dry.
   4. Place your pot on medium heat. Allow to heat up before you add the olive oil. You should have 2 tbsp left, put it in the pot.
   5. Once it’s heated, add the garlic and onions. Stir well, allowing them to cook for about a minute.
   6. Add you salt and paprika. I often add the paprika into the onions because it really takes on the flavour and colour nicely in this early step.
   7. Add the red pepper to the mix. Keep stirring.
   8. Add the meat. Place the ground turkey in the pot, and put the cinnamon on top. NOTE: I add the cinnamon directly to the turkey because it really soaks it in gives it a nice aroma while cooking.
   9. Add the rest of the veggies: the kale and mushrooms. Continue stirring. You want everything to cook together well, so keep mixing. You’ll notice a lot of broth being made, and it smells amazing with all the fresh veggies.
   10. Keep mixing, and keep cooking until most of the broth is gone. You don’t want a soggy lasagna!
   11. Once you notice the broth almost gone, add your pasta sauce. I often use a plain sauce because we spice it up. NOTE: anything works, you can pick your favorite one, and add more spice to accommodate the kick you’re looking for.
   12. Add the rest of your spices: pepper, basil, oregano, parsley. Mix your sauce well, and bring to boil.
   13. Once boiled, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes, still mixing every 5 minutes or so.
   14. OPTIONAL: This is optional, but if you have a few fennel seeds, throw them into the sauce. Gives such a beautiful aroma and flavor! Chili flakes is also optional here, if you like the spice throw it in! And more depending how much heat you can handle.
5. The eggplant in the oven should be done by now, once it is done remove from oven and set aside.
6. Alright, as you eggplant is cooling, your sauce is simmering, we’re going to get the cheese mix ready:

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   1. In a mixing bowl, combine cottage cheese and egg. Mix well.
   2. You can add a pinch of salt and pepper.
   3. Add the parsley. Mix well. This will be a delicious cheese layer for when you assemble.
7. Once the sauce is ready (you’ll know it’s ready when it’s no longer runny), remove from heat. Let it cool down a bit.
8. Pull out your fav baking dish. If you use a big one, you’ll have less layers. If you have a small one, you’ll have more layers. Both work perfectly fine.
9. Layer One: MEAT SAUCE. Cover the baking dish in meat. Keep the layer consistent throughout.
10. Layer Two: the cottage cheese mix. Spread the cheese over the meat sauce using a spatula.
11. Layer Three: Egg plant. Place the eggplant over the sauce, making sure it’s all covered.
12. Layer Four: Mozza cheese. With my pan, I used one entire bag for this layer.
13. And repeat! Next meat, cottage cheese, egg plant, shredded cheese. We do two layers. You final layer should be the shredded mozza cheese, and now your dish is oven ready!
14. You can sprinkle some more basil on top before it hits the oven (we really love basil if you can’t tell).
15. Place in the oven for 40-45 minutes @ 375 degrees F. Remove when it’s ready, and please allow to cool. It is HOT!

We always serve this dish with caesar salad and garlic bread. It is a household favourite on here. Def worth a try.

If you’re making this one, please give me a tag @mothermayibake – I’d love to see how it turns out. It’s a big dish and there’s often leftovers, so you don’t have to cook tomorrow! Enjoy!