Homegrown Baked Eggplant in an Almost Vegetarian Dinner

by RayPower in Cooking > Snacks & Appetizers

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Homegrown Baked Eggplant in an Almost Vegetarian Dinner

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I find there are lots of great dishes that are predominantly vegetarian, that the vegetables are the main characters of the story but something of an animal nature is added into the equation to compliment the rest.
This recipie has anchovies which give a great flavour. There is no ground beef nor bacon nor chicken. Just vegetables and cheese.........and anchovies.
The eggplants are the last of the stock of eggplants our friends had given us from their garden along with all the other beautiful vegetables I mentioned in my last instructable: Organic Valencian Paella. We had already made pisto (totally vegetarian) and musaka (totally not vegetarian).
This is very quick to prepare and pretty light going stuff so its good for an evening dinner. I didn't use garlic for that reason. If we were having it as a starter with a mid day meal I would have lightly fried some chopped garlic in the same oil to use on the eggplants, see step 2.

Ingredients

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Garden grown Eggplant
Garden grown Tomato
Anchovies
Mozarella
Parmesan
Capers
Basil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt n Pepper

Microwave the Eggplant

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Turn on the top grill/broiler of your oven to high
Cut the eggplants down the middle.
Season with a pinch of salt and olive oil.
If using garlic, chop it and fry it in the olive oil then apply it to the eggplant.
Microwave 6 minutes (800 watt oven) or until soft when tested with a fork. This is a SUPER FAST way to bake the eggplants. A conventional oven could take 40 minutes to do this part.

Prep All the Other Ingredients

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Slice the mozzarella
Peel and slice the tomato
Roughly chop some basil leaves

Grill the Cheese

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Place the eggplants on a tray.
Place slices of tomato on the eggplants.
Place anchovies, capers and chopped basil on the tomato slices.
Season with salt and olive oil.
Place slices of mozzarella on top of everything.
Bang it in the oven 'til the cheese melts

Bon Appetit

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Sprinkle on more chopped basil leaves, parmesan shavings, olive oil and freshly ground pepper.
Serve immediately.