Stuffed Eggplant: From Mark's Daily Apple

Sliced Eggplant

Mark's Daily Apple is the site that first turned me on to primal eating. There are a bunch of recipes on his site and I can't wait to them try out. The spicy stuffed eggplant entree was the first primal recipe I ever, intentionally, tried. I originally made it last winter for my boyfriend and his brothers family and it was a huge hit--everyone loved it, even those who thought that they would never want to try eggplant in their life. Personally, I love eggplant, but you don't need to love it to love this recipe.

Feeds about four

Ingredients:
2 large eggplants
5 tbsp olive oil
1 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
8 oz ground beef, bison or pork, cooked
Salt and Pepper to taste

First be sure to pre-cook the meat in a skillet. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise. Scoop out and keep the innards of the eggplant leaving about a 1/4 of an inch to create a bowl. Chop up the eggplants innards then set aside. Heat half of the olive oil in a large skillet and place the eggplant flat side down in the skillet and cook for about five minutes. Once that is finished place the eggplant flat side up onto a cookie sheet or oven safe dish. Add the rest of the olive oil to the skillet then saute the onions and garlic. Then add eggplant, tomatoes, thyme, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper to the skillet. Once it gets to a stew-like consistency remove from heat and mix in the cooked meat. Fill the eggplant bowls with the meat mixture and place in the oven for 15 minutes.

Mark's blog calls this recipe spicy stuffed eggplant. I for one am a spicy whimp, this recipe was not terribly spicy. I was able to eat it with ease.