Yield: Serves 4 | Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 35 minutes
Stuffed Eggplants filled with a savoury filling. A beautiful, healthy dish with fun textures stacked with middle eastern spices and a garlic tahini sauce. Too pretty to look at and tastes exquisite, too!
Ingredients
Spicy Garlic Tahini Sauce:
1/2 cup plain, low-fat Greek yoghurt
2 tablespoons tahini paste
6 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or your desired amount)
3 tablespoons water
Stuffed Eggplant:
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggplants, cut in half length-wise and centre scooped out leaving about 1” border all around
Olive oil (about 4 tablespoons, divided use)
Salt
Black pepper
1 small onion, finely diced
1/2 pound lean ground beef (or turkey, chicken, lamb, or sausage)
4 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press
Pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
1 1/2 cups cooked basmati rice (you can get this from ½ cup uncooked rice cooked with ¾ cup water)
1/2 cup chopped cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh mint leaves, plus a couple of extra leaves for garnish
1 tablespoon roughly chopped pistachios (optional)
How to make Stuffed Eggplant
Step 1: Prepare the oven. Preheat it to 400 degrees.
Step 2: Using parchment paper, line a baking sheet.
Step 3: To make the garlic tahini sauce, add the spicy garlic tahini sauce ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until smooth. Pour the mixture into a bowl and set aside.
Step 4: Combine the paprika, coriander, cumin, and cinnamon in a small ramekin and set aside.
Step 5: On the prepared baking sheet, flesh side-up, place 4 halves of eggplants. On the flesh side of the eggplants, drizzle around 3 tbsp oil, then, sprinkle 1/3 seasoning mix from the ramekin and pinches of salt and pepper.
Step 6: Roast in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until tender and the eggplants are easily pierced using a paring knife.
Step 7: Meanwhile, get the filling ready. Start by heating a pan over medium-high heat. When hot, drizzle around a tbsp oil and saute the diced onions for several minutes until tender. Adding the beef, crumbling it and cooking for some minutes more along with the onion. Stir in the rest of the seasoning mix with a few pinches of salt and pepper, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Go on cooking until the meat is thoroughly cooked.
Step 8: Add the cooked rice into the cooked ground beef along with the chopped celery, tomatoes, chopped parsley, mint, and pistachios. Fold the ingredients until incorporated and keep warm.
Step 9: Generously fill each roasted eggplant cavity with the same potions of the warm filling. Transfer them on a plate and drizzle spicy garlic tahini sauce over each stuffed eggplant. If desired, garnish with more mint or parsley.
Nutrition Info:
524 calories
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