Eat Simply, Eat Well

Healthy recipes & tips to help you live the good life. by Ann Plough

Baked Eggplant with Tomato, Red Lentil & Herb Sauce

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Baked Eggplant with Tomato & Red Lentil Sauce

Eggplant.  What a strange name for this beautiful food.  I prefer the French name “aubergine” (used by the English as well) in this case as it seems much more elegant and in keeping with what this vegetable can become if treated properly.

Eggplant or aubergine is one of the nutrious foods out there.  Low-calorie when not doused heavily in olive oil, it contains respectable quantity of fiber, vitamins and minerals, many of which have antioxidant properties.  In scientific research, though, eggplant has been most noted for a phytonutrient called nasunin found in its skin – a potent antioxidant that has been shown to protect cell membranes from damage and to protect the fats in brain cell membranes. Maybe this is where the geek nickname of “Egghead” comes from…in any case, perhaps we should all be eating a lot more of this lovely purple vegetable, skin intact.

If you plan to eat the skin, be on the lookout for younger eggplants as the older ones tend to come with a tough skin that is difficult to chew, even when cooked well. Also, if you use the younger eggplants, you won’t need to salt them to remove the bitterness and extra water, so it will save you time.  If you do have larger eggplants, see here for tips from the Kitchn on the salting process.

No pre-salting needed this time: just a sprinkle of salt & a drizzle of olive oil and into the oven.

Eggplant reminds me of Italy, and consuming a luscious dish of Melanzane alla Parmiagana (Eggplant Parmesan) on a warm summer evening with a light breeze blowing off of the Mediterranean Sea, candle light flickering across the faces of friends gathered around a large table outside of our rented villa, and laughter all around as we shared stories and anecdotes and good food.

This dish is a slight twist on Eggplant Parmesan, because while it contains both eggplant and parmesan, I tucked in some lentils to boost the nutrient profile. It is quite a lovely dish – another good one for your winter table. It will take about 30 minutes to put together and another 30 minutes to bake, but uses simple, straightforward ingredients and really delivers on the flavor front.

Since the eggplant slices are baked in the oven to pre-cook them rather than fried, they aren’t heavy with oil, so you’ll find the dish satisfying but not greasy.  The red lentils combined with the tomatoes and herbs in the sauce provide a lovely depth of flavor and texture, and then bread chunks on top get nice and crunchy in the oven, providing a delicious contrast to the smoothness of the rest of the dish.

Allow this dish to cool for at least 10 minutes once you remove it from the oven – it’s more relaxing to eat it if it’s not steaming hot, and rest time allows it to settle a bit.  Serve with a large green salad on the side, and extra Parmesan for grating over the top.

Creamy, crunchy, satisfying.

Baked Eggplant with Tomato, Red Lentil & Herb Sauce

Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F

3 small eggplants, cut into rounds about 1/2″ / 1.75 cm thick
500 g tomato sauce
one onion, peeled and cut into large chunks
one carrot, peeled and cut into chunks
4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
3/4 cup / 1.5 dl red lentils, rinsed
3 cups water
1 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 cup loosely packed basil leaves
2 tablespoons diced fresh parsley
1.5 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
50 g fresh parmesan, grated
4 slices good quality whole wheat bread (sourdough preferred), cut into 1/2″ pieces
olive oil, to drizzle

Place the eggplants on a large baking tray, sprinkle lightly with salt and drizzle with olive oil.  Bake for 15 minutes or until the eggplant slices are lightly browned and tender.  Remove from oven and allow to cool while you finish the sauce.

In a medium pot over medium-high heat, combine the tomato sauce, onion, carrot, garlic, lentils, water, oregano and parsley (basil will be added at the end).  Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until the lentils are tender, about 20 minutes.  Add the basil, salt and pepper and taste.  Add more salt and pepper if needed.  Using a handheld blender, blend the sauce until smooth.  Alternatively, (carefully) pour the sauce into a heat-proof blender or food processor and blend until smooth. (It’s dishes like this that make a hand-held blender a worthwhile investment!)

Scoop 1/3 of the sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish to cover the bottom generously.  Lay half of the eggplant on top.  Cover with 1/3 of the tomato sauce.  Sprinkle with 1/2 of the parmesan.  Lay the remaining eggplant slices over the top and cover with the remaining sauce.  Sprinkle the remaining parmesan over the top of the sauce.  Sprinkle the bread chunks over the top of the dish to cover the tomato sauce completely.  Drizzle lightly with olive oil.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the mixture begins to bubble and the bread chunks are a crispy golden brown. (you may want to place the casserole dish onto a baking tray in case the sauce bubbles over).  Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 4-6.

Serve with a side salad like this one…

Halloumi, Grape, Avocado & Rucola Salad

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Full of micronutrients to give you the energy to push through to the end of Winter.

Don’t despair, my friends, I think the end of this long, cold Winter is in sight.  I can feel it.  I hope I’m not wrong. We’re still seeing the occasional flurry of snowflakes here in Helsinki, but for the most part, the snow isn’t sticking and the packed snow and ice is nearly melted from everywhere.  That’s a relief – especially the fact that the ice is gone off of our favorite walking trails.  For a while there, it was pretty slipper and miserable to try to find footing in the dark evenings as we made our way around the neighborhood and around the island trail in our favorite nearby natural reserve.  Now we are back on firm footing and loving it, and the slightly warmer weather (+3° C feels warm by now!).

We are moving from full on soups and other comfort foods to adding more and more salads to our repertoire. Salty, sweet, creamy and fresh.  That’s a good combination for a salad.  I still have full on adoration for the seasonal pomegranate, especially mixed into a salad, but a delicious bunch of red grapes caught my eye in the grocery store recently and provided just the sweet note I was looking for to pair with the salty halloumi. What starts as a light salad quickly turns into a meal once you add grilled cheese  and creamy diced avocado.  Toss in a few toasted seeds and you are well on your way to energized afternoon.

Go for it.  It’ll only take a few minutes to have this on your plate.

This is a lunch whipped together on a weekend afternoon after a long walk in the sleet & the rain, consumed as the fog turned everything a murky gray outside, and flickering candlelight cast shadows against the windows.  Serve by itself or with bread – either way you’ll find it a satisfying, flavorful meal.

Halloumi, Grape, Avocado & Rucola Salad

Halloumi, Grape, Avocado & Rucola Salad

4 cups fresh, washed rucola/rocket
1 cup of halved grapes
1/2 avocado, diced
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cucumber, diced
juice of 1/2 lime
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 teaspoons maple syrup
scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds, toasted
150 g Halloumi, cut into large pieces

Combine the rucola, grapes, avocado, green onion and cucumber in a bowl and toss with your fingers or a spoon to combine.  In a small cup or bowl, whisk together the lime juice, olive oil, maple syrup, salt and black pepper.  Pour the dressing mix over the salad and toss well to combine. Add half of the pumpkin seeds, combine briefly, and divide the salad between two plates.

Heat a heavy-bottomed frying pan over high heat, add a few drops of oil, and fry the halloumi until it is golden brown on both sides. Divide the halloumi between the salad plates and sprinkle with the remaining pumpkin seeds.

Serves 2.

Israeli Couscous with Tomatoes, Basil & Mozzarella

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Israeli couscous with Tomatoes, Basil & Mozzarella

The beauty of this dish (beyond aesthetics) is two-fold:  it’s as simple as can be to make it, and the flavor is deeper than you’d expect from the simple list of ingredients.  In fact, beyond the basic salt, pepper and oil, there are just 6 ingredients working together to create the magic here.

If you have all of these ingredients hanging around, the whole operation will take roughly 15 minutes from starting point to dining.  You’ll want to start with boiling the water for the couscous (you can sub pearl barley if preferred as it has a similar texture and cooking time to the Israeli couscous (a.k.a. Ptitim) and move on to cooking the sauce.

Nuuksio mid-February – not exactly picnic weather…but beautiful nonetheless.

We had this a couple of nights ago: we’d spent the day outside and came home ‘starving’ and didn’t want anything too complicated.  We’d slogged through what was left of the snow in Nuuksio, the Finnish national park just east of Espoo, and it was clear from the soft, slushy snow and the water dripping off of the trees that Winter had lost it’s grip, at least for now.  We managed to get a fire going and cooked up a few lamp sausages to go with the red pepper hummus and carrot slices we’d brought with us; enjoyed a few brownies with tea, and made our slow and pleasant way back to the car through the wind and sleet.  Ahhh.  I think of no better way to spend a free day than outside, tromping around in nature, even if the weather is a little less than optimal.

The picture says it all.  Roasted Lamb Sausage.  Kyllä! (That’s ‘yes’ in Finnish)

Arriving home with growling stomachs turned out to be only a minor inconvenience once we dreamed up this dish:  fewer than 20 minutes after arriving home, we were sitting down at the dinner table, grinding a little fresh pepper over the top of our dinner.

Bringing the sunshine into Winter.

Israeli Couscous with Tomatoes, Basil & Mozzarella

1 cup / 2 dl Israeli couscous / Ptitim (or pearl barley)
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 shallots, diced
1 cup / 250g halved golden tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, minced
small bunch of basil, leaves picked, sliced thinly
1 ball fresh mozzarella, diced
salt and pepper to taste

Bring 1 quart/liter of water to boil in a medium-sized pot.  Add the couscous and 1 teaspoon of salt, and cook until the couscous is al dente. (If using pearl barley, cook per manufacturer’s instructions.) Turn off the heat, remove 1 cup of pasta water, and drain the remaining water away.

While the pasta cooks, prepare the sauce.  In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the shallots. Cook over medium heat until the shallots are soft and just beginning to brown.  Add the tomatoes all at once and cook for 3-4 minutes until the tomatoes begin to soften and slump.  Add the garlic and cook one minute more.

Remove from heat and pour over 1/2 the reserved pasta water.  Stir in the basil, mozzarella and drained couscous.  Add more pasta water if the mixture seems too dry – you want there to be a little liquid broth at the bottom of the pan.  Add salt and pepper to taste, divide between two bowls.

If desired, garnish with a few basil leaves, a couple of tomato halves, and piece or two of mozzarella, and serve with a spoon.

Serves 2.