Quinoa Stuffed Eggplant

August 17, 2012 · By ·
I’ve never been great at cooking with vegetables, but I’ve always wanted to do a better job about keeping up with what our garden produces and fixing healthy, more vegetable based meals for our family. I’ve also recently jumped on the quinoa bandwagon…you know me, always late to a trend. Love me some quinoa.
This year we planted lots of tomatoes, an eggplant, lots of basil, and rosemary in our garden. And jalapeños that haven’t done anything yet. I was planning to do more, but got sidetracked by having a baby. Happens. 
 
Last year, we were overwhelmed by eggplant. Eggplant Parmesan and roasted eggplant were all I did with it, and that got old fast.  So when Mr. B decided he wanted eggplant again this year, I wasn’t excited.  In an effort to put together a meatless meal for our family this week, I decided to make an eggplant quinoa dish. After a quick Google search, I settled on Quinoa Stuffed Eggplant, and adapted this recipe to maximize what I had available, and eliminate dairy (so technically, this might be vegan. But that’s a trend I’m pretty sure I’m never jumping on).  Everything but the corn, garlic, onion and quinoa came from our garden. That’s fun and new for me! And it was so delicious and filling.


Here’s what you need (for two servings with some leftover stuffing, which is an excellent lunch the next day, or you could probably use two eggplants and keep the rest of the amounts the same if you wanted to serve 4).

Quinoa Stuffed Eggplant (adapted from Mother Earth News)

1/2 cup quinoa
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 eggplant
1 red onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup tomatoes chopped
1 cup corn
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
Fresh or dried oregano to taste
Salt and Pepper

Cook quinoa according to package instructions, and when the liquid has all evaporated, stir and let stand for 5 minutes, then mix in about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.  Set this aside for later.
Meanwhile, slice the eggplant in half lengthwise, and scoop out the innards. I scored the eggplant innards and scooped them out of the skin with a spoon, keeping the skin intact, then cut the innards (I’m sure there’s a better name for this) into small chunks and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350, and season the eggplant shells with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake 12 – 15 minutes.

While the shells are baking, sauté the onion and garlic in the remaining olive oil 3 – 5 minutes. Add eggplant chunks and cook another 3 minutes, Next add the quinoa, corn and tomatoes, sauté another 3 minutes or so, and finally add basil and oregano. It’s so colorful and smells so good:


Fill the shells with the quinoa mixture and bake for 25 – 30 minutes at 350. I prepped this during naptime, then just put the final product in the oven for the 25 minutes before dinner. It was delicious, and I was pretty proud of my almost all-from-the-garden meal. How very Boulder of me. I had to provide research to back-up my claim that you can eat the eggplant skin for Mr. B to believe me, but you can, indeed eat the skin. 


Now, I know better than to expect picky, 2 year old Thomas to eat an eggplant shell stuffed with quinoa. But B and I like to try different foods that probably don’t appeal to most kids, and we want to expose our kids to lots of food so that one day, they won’t be annoying picky eaters (hopefully!). So, the rule at our house is you eat what’s served to you, you try everything, but you don’t have to finish it. But quinoa and eggplant’s a bit exotic for my veggie hating carbivore. So, when I cook something that I know will be a battle to get him to eat, I make his plate up of 2 – 3 tried and true foods (simple stuff I can throw together while our main food is cooking, I’m not taking orders or anything) he loves and a little bit of the new food. That way, we still eat together as a family, I’m not cooking totally different meals for him and we have success with the family rule (he’s served the sandwich, instead of refusing to eat what I put on his plate and then me making a sandwich after the fact), and dinner is enjoyable instead of a food battle – which I would never win. Sometimes he loves it, most of the time he doesn’t…but he tries it. That’s good enough for me for now.

Thomas’s rendition of our dinner: Quinoa & Eggplant, Almond Butter Sandwich and Strawberries.
Pin It
Filed Under: Cooking with Em ·

Comments

  1. Jenny says:
    August 17, 2012 at 2:55 pm

    Emily! How did you know I’ve been scoping out quinoa recipes? My husband says he doesn’t like eggplant, but upon seeing your picture, he thought it looked yummy and is willing to try. Thanks for posting this!

  2. Kim @ NewlyWoodwards says:
    August 18, 2012 at 2:35 am

    I hav to say that I had only true quinoa Once and I wasn’t sold. Maybe I didn’t prepare it correctly? I do live stuffed peppers. An I love eggplant. So maybe this would be a good test. It looks yummy.