A great recipe for eggplant is this vegetarian dish of baked eggplant and red bell pepper.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Total Time: | 55 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
Ingredients
- 1 red bell pepper, cut into matchstick-sized pieces
- 1 small onion, cut into matchstick-sized pieces
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 3 ⅓ tablespoons olive oil
- 3 ⅓ tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 eggplant, sliced lengthwise 3/8-inch thick
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, or as needed
- ¼ cup grated mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
- Mix red bell pepper, onion, and garlic in a large mixing bowl; season with basil, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over pepper mixture; toss to coat vegetables evenly.
- Brush eggplant slices with olive oil to coat.
- Spread about 1/3 of the pepper mixture into the bottom of a square glass baking dish; top with a layer of about 1/3 of the eggplant. Repeat layering twice more. Top final layer with mozzarella cheese.
- Bake in preheated oven until cheese is browned and vegetables are bubbling, 35 to 40 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 227 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 12 g |
| Cholesterol | 5 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 52 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 20 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Easy to prepare and Great use of eggplant and all other vegetables from my garden. I added a layer of tomatoes on top and then put mozzarella on top of that. I believed this improved it. This is a simple recipe with great flavors. Definitely will make it again.
It all depends on the eggplant itself and the ones’ that I had were perfect thus making this dish outstanding
While I took the advice of several reviewers and grilled the eggplant, it was against my better judgment to just add the garlic without at least sweating them. This led to some gnarly garlic moments when biting into the dish. I also used peppers from my garden that were not that meaty and these, too, should have had a little bit of a sweat. When I tasted the entire dish nothing had married together, so I added a jar of tomato sauce, two dollops of creme fraiche, whipped it all together, sprinkled the dish with parmesan and panko, added a swipe of oil and baked it for some real comfort. I know that some will say that what I made is not the recipe, but I tried that recipe and found it wanting.
Yummy
To make this a 5 star– definitely salt and rinse, then grill or bake the eggplant before assembling And I added Kalamata olives and feta between each layer and brushed eggplant with oil and spicy tomato sauce! I agree use only 2Tbs of balsamic if you are using good balsamic. For my oven baking at 350 degrees atleast 30 minutes. Excellent
Tasty except for the eggplant! A bit better when I cut off the tough eggplant skin. If I made it again, I’d be sure to choose a very sweet balsamic. I would double the onions and peppers, which turned out great.
I love this! It is better if you salt the eggplant for 30 minutes to remove moisture. I also peeled the eggplant.
My husband loved it! Me I’m picky but the flavor is great. We used it as a main dish. May want to use it as a vegetable side in the future. I added an extra red pepper because I love them.
very good. i would make this again, but i would take the skin off eggplant. Also re-heat in a mini crockpot. microwave makes it tough
Should’ve covered lightly , then removed at the end. It took a while. I was expecting magic. It didn’t happen, didn’t wow. Ya know, I love basil; & rosemary is okay. Maybe adding more is the reason it’s so bleh. Eggplant isn’t exactly mouthwatering on its own. Such small amounts of spice for that much food. ‘Could be, anyway.
I like the seasonings with the peppers. I salted my eggplant, then browned it in a dry non stick frypan before baking it to soften it. The bals. vinegar was overpowering. I would decrease the b vin. Next time.
Agree that the eggplant needs a head start in the cooking process. Great recipe.
I used balsamic vinegarette (my fav, Newmans Own) in place of the oil and vinegar. I didn’t have onion or rosemary, I used Italian seasoning and onion powder. I did grill my eggplant in a stove top grill pan for just a few min first. It was delicious! Its more of a side dish than a meal
Wasn’t to my taste.
Might want to consider pre-baking or grilling the eggplant prior to assembling for the oven. My eggplant was still a little tough after 45 minutes. And like any other recipe, you’ll need to adjust the add-ins such as the vinegar and rosemary to you taste. By the way, my wife loved it.
Delicious! Make sure you use a small eggplant otherwise you will end up with extra unused slices. Very easy to assemble and packed with flavor! This makes 4 generous sides. I realized when I was on my third layer that I had forgotten to brush the eggplant with olive oil, so I only got the third layer. Not sure that really made much of a difference. The only thing I’d suggest it adding more cheese. 1/4 cup if very skimpy to cover the top, but that’s personal preference. I used 1/2-3/4 cup total. Next time I might even add a bit of cheese between the layers. Thanks Anthony for the tasty recipe!