I hate to call anything I make a recipe, because everything I cook is really just ingredients put together and cooked to make something food-like. The other day at
crossfit we talked about eggplant parmesan, which sounded delicious. So, I googled around and found that other people had been able to paleo-ize this delightful dish. Why not give it a go?
Ingredients:
Olive Oil
3 cans diced tomatoes (My mom recently gave me some of these Muir Glen Organic cans she picked up at Target - they made a perfect base for my sauce. Thanks, Mom!)
2 onions
1lb. ground beef
1 eggplant
1 tsp. parsley flakes
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. basil
salt and pepper to taste
Not Pictured (but still important):
2 eggs
4 tbs. garlic
1 cup almond flour
Dice one of the onions and two tablespoons of garlic and put them into a hot pan with some olive oil. I know, not supposed to use evoo (shout out to Ray Ray) to cook at high temperatures, but I felt weird using coconut oil as a base for a marinara sauce. Anyway, let the onion and garlic cook up, then pour all three cans of tomatoes in. Add the parsley, oregano, basil, salt and pepper until it looks/tastes good. Cut the other onion in half (this part of the recipe is stolen from
Smitten Kitchen), leaving it intact at the root end, clean it up a bit, and drop both halves into the sauce. Set it on low and move on to the eggplant and meat prep.
Slice the eggplant in 1/4-1/2 inch slices and sprinkle them with salt. Apparently this helps the eggplant expel some of it's excess water - who knew? Let those guys rest for a while while you prep your meatballs. I've made several batches of meatballs which included paleo friendly flours, but they always come out tasting like that flour (I'm looking at you, almonds), so I just omitted the whole thing. My meatballs included beef, 2 tbs of minced garlic, and one egg. Mix those things together and roll your balls!
Next step is to set up your dredging station for the eggplant. One bowl needs a beaten egg, the other needs almond flour. Dip each slice in the egg, coating both sides, then set it down into the almond flour, making sure each side is lightly coated. Gently lower the slices into a hot pan with evoo. Flip when they look "done" (golden brown and happy).
Place the "done" eggplant slices into a 9 x 12 glass baking dish. When they're all done, spoon some (not all!) of your sauce onto each one and put into a preheated 400 degree oven. No time limit on this - just until the rest of the meal is done.
Grab a slotted spoon and fish those onion halves out of the sauce. Brown the meatballs on all sides and gently lower them into your sauce. Let them finish cooking in the simmering sauce (10-15 minutes or so).
When the meatballs are cooked to your satisfaction, pull the eggplant out of the oven, put a few slices on a plate, cover it with some more sauce and meatballs, and eat!
I enjoyed this meal a little too much, I think, because I'm stuffed! It's not low calorie by any means, but it's fully paleo, and fully delicious. Yum!
