The Dinner Winner

Meatless food for all!

comfort food

5 Dinner

Weeknight Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Weeknight Baked Eggplant Parmesan

We have all had tons of time at home over the last few months. For all of us that means more cooking, which is a great thing. For those of us with two working parents and kids in the house, it does not necessarily mean more time to cook. I came up with this dead simple version of baked eggplant parmesan because I was really craving it, but I wanted a faster way. Roasting the eggplant makes everything much easier than individually frying each piece. It also probably makes it lower in fat, but that was not my main goal in making the recipe. 

I chose to throw together a quick and simple tomato sauce for this. If you are really crunched for time, feel free to use a good quality jarred sauce. I like Victoria’s and Rao’s, but use whatever you like. Throwing together a red sauce is dead simple, so give it a try. 

Feeds 3-4. This recipe is easily doubled
Time 45 minutes, somewhat unattended

Ingredients

1 large eggplant (1.5 – 2 lbs)
1/2 cup olive oil (for brushing)
Salt
1/2 lb fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
1 recipe dead simple tomato sauce
Fresh basil for serving

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Slice the eggplant crosswise into 1/2 inch thick slices. Arrange the slices on a large baking sheet.
  3. Generously paint the eggplant on one side with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt. A pastry brush works well for this. Flip the eggplant slices and paint and salt the opposite side. This is a great step to let a child do. It’s very simple and not too messy.
  4. Roast the eggplant in the oven for 15 minutes. Flip and roast for 15 minutes longer. The eggplant should be nicely browned. If it is not, leave it in a bit longer. Remove when the eggplant is browned. Leave the oven on.
  5. While the eggplant is in the oven, make the sauce. 
  6. Now it is time to assemble the dish. Spread 1/2 cup of the sauce on the bottom of a 9 inch square, or oval baking dish.
  7. Place one layer of eggplant down, trying to cover the entire surface of the dish. 
  8. Cover the eggplant with a layer of tomato sauce, then cover with slices of the mozzarella. Repeat until you run out of eggplant. In the dish I used, this worked out to be two layers of eggplant. 
  9. Bake the dish, uncovered for 15-20 minutes. The cheese should be melted, maybe slightly browned and the sauce should be bubbling. 
  10. Make a chiffonade of the basil and sprinkle it on top of the eggplant. Serve with pasta and the remaining sauce.
Eggplant before baking
Eggplant before baking, brushed with oil
Roasted eggplant
Eggplant after roasting
Baked eggplant Parmesan
Baked eggplant Parmesan, right out of the oven

1 Breakfast

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Waffles

Autumn weekend mornings are awesome. I’m not sure what makes them different than a summer weekend, but somehow, the desire to rise and spring out the door into activity isn’t nearly as strong. We tend to linger over coffee, put some Palestrina on the hi-fi, and make something good for breakfast. My girls will often settle into a marathon book reading session, or get involved in some complicated dress up game. These whole wheat pumpkin waffles are the perfect thing on a lazy Sunday morning for so many reasons.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Waffles

First, they are downright delicious. They are full of fall flavors, and hints of baking spices; your whole house will smell fantastic for the rest of the day. Next, as far as waffles go, these are pretty good for you. They have quite a bit of pumpkin, aka a vegetable, in them, and are 100% whole grain. You can’t go wrong. They are not a low fat food, but you could easily trim the butter quite a bit and still have decent results.

This is an adapted recipe from Eating Well for whole wheat pumpkin waffles that I have been making for some time. It has woven its way into my weekend food repertoire and never left. If you want to make it dairy free, substitute canola oil for the butter, and your non-dairy milk of choice for the buttermilk. Be sure to follow the instructions below on turning regular milk into buttermilk.

If you’re making brunch for a crowd and want something savory to offset these waffles, why not try this fantastic tomato and feta shakshuka?

If you don’t have buttermilk…

If you don’t happen to have buttermilk around, there are a couple of ways to make a perfectly good substitute. You can either set regular milk in a measuring cup and add a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice or cider vinegar. Let that stand while you get the rest of the recipe together and use it just like the buttermilk. There is enough acid in the lemon juice or vinegar to act on the baking soda and make the whole wheat pumpkin waffles fluffier. Or, put a big dollop of yogurt into a measuring cup, then fill to the two cup mark with regular milk. Mix the yogurt in, and you are all set.

The best flour sifter out there Dry ingredients into wet The waffle batter before cooking Waffles in the iron

On waffle irons

I have this Krups Belgian waffle iron. It’s pretty good, but it’s always annoyed me that there is no temperature control. Fortunately, they corrected that with their latest version. No matter what, don’t skimp on your waffle maker. If you get a decent one, it will last forever and cook beautifully. Cheaper waffle makers cook unevenly and don’t last long.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Waffles
Save RecipeSave Recipe
Print Recipe

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
  • 1 14oz can canned solid-pack pumpkin
  • 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
  • Vegetable oil for brushing waffle iron (I use Pam or baker’s joy)

METHOD

  1. Sift together flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices.
  2. Whisk eggs in a large bowl until blended, then whisk in, buttermilk, brown sugar, pumpkin, and butter until smooth.
  3. Mix in dry ingredients just until smooth.
  4. Brush waffle iron lightly with oil and spoon batter (about 2 cups for four 4-inch Belgian waffles) into waffle iron, spreading quickly. Cook for about 4 minutes in a Belgian waffle maker, maybe less in a normal one.
  5. As you make them, keep the finished waffles warm in a 200 degree oven.
  6. Put some maple syrup on and dig in.
  7. Also, these freeze really well. Just let them cool off and put them in ziplock bags for homemade eggos. Heat them up for a few seconds in the microwave and then bake them in the toaster for a couple of minutes.

Tags

Cuisines
American
Kid-Friendly
Occasions
Thanksgiving
Winter
Courses
Breakfast
Brunch
Diet
vegetarian
pescetarian
Vegan
Allergy
seafood free
treenut free
sesame free
mustard free

7.8.1.2
16

https://thedinnerwinner.com/whole-wheat-pumpkin-waffles/

Nutrition

Calories

2559 cal

Fat

82 g

Carbs

375 g

Protein

87 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

Affiliate links help support this site. Help keep it running by using them.

75 Dinner

Italian Cauliflower Soup

After a long and very hot summer, soup season is finally here! It’s the time of year when something delicious is seemingly always bubbling away merrily on the stove or in the oven. One of my favorite soups to make is this rustic Italian cauliflower soup. It is simple, versatile and absolutely delicious. It’s a recipe I came across years ago on a long defunct Mario Batali cooking app. Over the years, I have made this a million times and in a bunch of different ways. The one consistent thing about the soup is how it warms the soul on a cold day, and how much my girls love it. When I made it for dinner earlier in the week, I actually got “yay, cauliflower soup!” from my six year old.

Growing up, my father’s side of the family was Italian, and my mother’s Jewish. Food was important on both sides of the family, and holidays were really just an excuse for a really good meal. I remember visiting my Italian grandmother in New Jersey around holidays, almost always for thanksgiving. Of course the thanksgiving meal was a highlight, but I also remember the whole week being an amazing parade of dishes, one after another. I remember incredible pizza rustica, steak a la pizzaiola, and all sorts of other staples of the Italian grandmother repertoire. I don’t recall her ever making an Italian cauliflower soup, but if she did, it would have been like this.

This Italian cauliflower soup is 100% Italian grandmother food. It will fill your whole house with savory smells for days. You’ll be slurping up every drop of soup and looking for excuses to make it again. It is also extremely versatile. To make it heartier, I usually add some pasta to the soup. But, you can keep it light if you wish and add nothing, or add farro or barley if you want a whole grain instead of pasta. If you add no grain or pasta, reduce the volume of water by two cups. Pro tip: if you use wagon wheel pasta, your kids will eat this no questions asked.

Parmesan rind

Most importantly of all, you must add the secret ingredient that takes this soup from a simple cauliflower soup recipe into the sublime; a Parmesan rind. If you’ve been throwing out the end of your Parmesan cheese blocks when you are done with them, stop immediately! Tossing a Parmesan rind into soup results in zillions of little tiny ribbons of Parmesan melted throughout the soup and gives the dish a really earthy, rustic flavor. You can do this with all sorts of stuff, which is why I always have a little Ziploc bag full of the rind from old Parmesan cheese wedges, and you should too.

You can round this out with a simple kale salad, but the soup is filling enough to make a meal on its own.

Italian Cauliflower Soup

Italian Cauliflower Soup
Save RecipeSave Recipe
Print Recipe

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 2 celery ribs, chopped
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 large cauliflower
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 14 oz can of whole tomatoes with juice, crushed between your fingers in a bowl
  • 8 cups vegetable broth
  • Salt to taste, usually about 1.5 teaspoons depending on how salty your broth is
  • Fresh ground black pepper to taste, usually about a teaspoon
  • 1 3" to 4" Parmesan rind
  • 8 ounces short pasta

METHOD

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Cook the onion, celery, and carrot for 4-6 minutes, until the onion is translucent. While the savory vegetables are cooking, separate the cauliflower into florets, and chop the softer part of the stem.
  2. Add the garlic to the pot and stir. Cook for one minute more. After a minute or so, add the cauliflower and stir and cook for another minute.
  3. Add the tomatoes, broth, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and Parmesan rind. Bring to a boil, stir once, reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes. You should have enough broth to cover the cauliflower. If you don't add more.
  4. After 15 minutes, check that the vegetables are done. Add the pasta and cook for what the package says to cook the pasta for. Don't let it simmer away, it will get mushy.
  5. Taste for salt and pepper one last time, and serve.
7.8.1.2
14

https://thedinnerwinner.com/italian-cauliflower-soup/

Nutrition

Calories

961 cal

Fat

58 g

Carbs

104 g

Protein

13 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info