BBQ Eggplant Rounds
It's week #19 of my 2018 challenge to try one new whole-food plant-based (WFPB) recipe each week. A reader recently commented that she was looking for good eggplant recipes. To be honest, eggplant is not something I make much, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to try something new!
This recipe idea comes from The Engine 2 Cookbook by Rip and Jane Esselstyn. I love this cookbook and have mentioned it before. Rip and Jane are two children of Dr. Esselstyn, a renowned scientist and surgeon who has researched how diet can prevent and reverse chronic diseases. His work was featured in the documentary Forks Over Knives. If you're looking for a good WFPB cookbook, I definitely recommend this one!
What I like about this recipe (besides the fact that it's healthy):
- It's simple to make.
- The barbecue sauce, balsamic vinegar, and nutritional yeast give the eggplant a nice smoky/cheesy flavor.
- The rounds taste great alone (as a side) or in sandwiches.
What I ended up using/doing:
- 1 eggplant
- 1/4 cup good-quality barbecue sauce (Organic varieties are often free from high fructose corn syrup and artificial preservatives, colors, and flavors.)
- 2 tsp balsalmic vinegar
- Nutritional yeast. I also tried the dairy-free "parmesan cheese" (used in the WFPB veggie pizza recipe I shared), which was also quite good!
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut the eggplant into thin slices (about 1/4 inch thick) and place slices onto parchment paper.
- I mixed the barbecue sauce and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl and used a brush to apply a thin layer of sauce to the eggplant slices. (This is a bit different from the method in the original recipe, but I found it to work best.)
- After applying sauce, sprinkle nutritional yeast or "parmesan cheese" to the slices.
- Flip the slices and apply sauce and nutritional yeast to the other side.
- Bake the eggplant rounds, checking frequently, for 15-20 minutes, until browned. I flipped mine at 10 minutes and ended up cooking them for the full 20 minutes. They're best right out of the oven.
- Enjoy!
This post was originally published on May 13, 2018.
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Kiley Owen, PA-C