Stuffed Eggplants with Toasted Bread, Tomatoes, and Yogurt
This recipe is adapted from one in Claudia Roden's Cookbook "The New Book of Middle Eastern Food." I have adapted it for the crockpot to make it a possibility for a weeknight meal.
This recipe is adapted from one in Claudia Roden's Cookbook "The New Book of Middle Eastern Food." I have adapted it for the crockpot to make it a possibility for a weeknight meal.
- Carbohydrate 75.6321882017686 g
- Cholesterol 59.211152124 mg
- Fat 22.3967279249922 g
- Fiber 31.9499578729708 g
- Protein 30.8351440261581 g
- Saturated Fat 6.10475797773374 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (1198g)
- Sodium 213.803689998831 mg
- Sugar 43.6822303287978 g
- Trans Fat 3.68156029423882 g
- Calories 582 calories
Step-by-step
- In a large skillet. fry the pine nuts in a drop of oil until lightly browned on the outside. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- If the ground beef is very lean, add a tablespoon of oil to the skillet and saute, breaking into small chunks, until crushed. Part way through sauteing the meat, season with cinnamon, allspice, salt and pepper to taste. Once the meat is cooked such that very little moisture remains, mix in the pine nuts.
- Cut off the stem of the eggplants and reserve to cap them later. Using an apple corer or paring knife, hollow out the eggplants, being careful not to puncture the other end. Reserve the inner flesh for another dish. Fill the hollowed vegetables with the meat mixture.
- In the same pan the filling was prepared in, saute the tomatoes and garlic with a little sugar, salt and pepper to taste until breaking down and becoming saucy. Stir in the pomegranate molasses and simmer 5 minutes.
- Place the tomato sauce in the bottom of the crock pot. Place the eggplants into the sauce, with their stem "lids" facing up. Cook in the crockpot on low setting for 4 hours.
- In a wide bowl, place the toasted pita bread pieces on the bottom and top with some of the tomato sauce. Spoon some yogurt over the top, then place an eggplant in the middle. Sprinkle with additional pine nuts for garnish if desired.
Using small eggplants rather than globe varieties ensures the vegetable cooks evenly throughout without turning the interior into mush during a four-hour slow cooker cycle. Small eggplants maintain structural integrity while absorbing the surrounding tomato sauce, and their narrow diameter matches the capacity of standard household apple corers used for excavation. Spices like cinnamon and allspice require oil-based frying to release their fat-soluble aromatic compounds fully before the meat enters the slow cooker. Ground beef yields better results when broken into small crunches during the initial skillet browning phase so that the mixture fits efficiently inside the hollowed cavities. Pairing this rich, warm dish with cool, sharp Greek yogurt and crisp toasted pita bread introduces essential textural contrasts of temperature and crunch. Pita bread absorbs excess liquid from the tomato sauce while retaining a brittle bite if added directly to the serving bowls immediately before plating. Dietary adjustments require minimal effort since the beef filling easily substitutes with soaked green lentils or finely minced mushrooms cooked down with identical spice ratios. Dairy-free adaptations succeed by replacing the Greek yogurt with thick coconut yogurt or tahini thinned with lemon juice and ice water at a one-to-one ratio.
