Stuffed Eggplants With Pinenuts And Feta

by healthyhome
in Vegan · Vegetarian
— 8 Mar, 2016

Lets talk nuts…

Nuts for life have a 30-days 30-ways challenge for the month of March trying to encourage people to eat 30 grams of nuts every day. Why? Cause they taste great – oh and they could also save your life!

I don’t need any encouragement, I love nuts – all nuts! I eat them just as they are, use them in baking and savoury cooking, throw them into salads…

There are just so many ways to use them and make the most of their delicious nutty crunch!

I recently found a new way to enjoy nuts on the nuts for life website. Originally titled stuffed eggplant with cashews and feta, I changed just a few things in the original recipe, according to what I had on hand (see below for more details on this) and made these delicious “Stuffed eggplants with pinenuts and feta”.

They were very easy to make and could be done in 2 stages to make them a faster weeknight dinner. Simply roast the eggplant a day or even 2-3 days before and store in the fridge.

You could even make them up on the weekend and store in the fridge, ready to bake when you get home from work. Then just throw together a salad, perhaps also with nuts, for a complete meal!

How delicious!

Enjoy 🙂

Stuffed Eggplants With Pinenuts And Feta

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour 5 mins

Author: Caroline Trickey adapted from Nuts for Life website

Serves: 2

Ingredients

2 medium (250 grams each approx) eggplants, halved lengthways
¼ cup pinenuts, toasted
80 grams crumbled feta or vegan cheese
½ can (2/3 cup or 120 grams cooked) black beans, drained and rinsed
⅓ cup roasted capsicum, chopped
¼ cup cooked quinoa, optional
2 tablespoons shredded fresh basil
cracked black pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Place eggplants cut side down on a baking tray lined with non stick baking paper.
Cover with foil and cook for 30 minutes or until just tender.
Remove foil and allow to cool.
When cool enough to handle, using a small sharp knife, carefully cut out the centre of each of the eggplant halves.
Chop the eggplant middle roughly and mix together with the pinenuts, feta, black beans, roasted capsicum, quinoa if using, basil and pepper until well combined.
Pile into the cavity of each eggplant.
Bake for 15 minutes until golden and warmed through.
Serve with a green salad or steamed vegies.

Changes made to original recipe – okay, so there’s a few!!

Feel free to adapt further or make as per original recipe!

swapped cashews for pinenuts
swapped chickpeas for black beans
swapped semi-dried tomatoes for roasted capsicum
added a bit of quinoa as it was sitting in my fridge and needed using up – feel free to omit, or you could add brown rice instead
left out the egg – didn’t think it needed it and (more honestly) couldn’t be bothered walking over to get one out of the fridge!!
I cut a hole out of the eggplant and added the removed eggplant to the filling, rather than just piling everything on top – I thought it tasted great this way!

How to make these delicious nut-stuffed eggplants…