Sunday, September 16, 2012

primal/paleo stuffed eggplant {recipe}

My boyfriend and I picked up some eggplant and grass fed beef at our local farmer's market this past weekend, so we decided to experiment in the kitchen and come up with our own primal/paleo dinner entree.  

Besides the eggplant and beef, we just used whatever we could scrounge up around the apartment...which isn't much being that we are poor college kids ;)


Primal/Paleo Stuffed Eggplant

ingredients: 
(makes 3-4 servings)

2 large eggplants (we used 4 small instead)
1/2 lb of grass fed ground beef
4 strips of bacon
1 jar of salsa (you know the rules, no corn syrup, corn, etc.)
1 teaspoon of garlic 
1 teaspoon or crushed red pepper flakes
salt and pepper (to taste)
Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Brown the ground beef in a skillet. In a separate skillet, cook the bacon strips. 
2. While the meat is cooking, cut each eggplant in half and scoop out the middle of the eggplant, leaving  about a 1/4 of an inch of the eggplant on the skin. Set aside the middle part of the eggplant.
3. Remove the bacon from the skillet and set aside.  Chop up the middle part of the eggplant and cook it in the bacon fat left in the skillet.


4. Once the eggplant is tender, combine with the browned ground beef.  Crumble up the bacon strips and add them as well. Add half the jar of salsa, garlic (to taste), crushed red pepper flakes (to taste), and salt and pepper (to taste).  Stir and heat mixture.  


5. Once the filling has been heated, spoon into the eggplant halves.  Place stuffed eggplant into a baking dish (we used a 9X13 glass baking dish because that was all we had).  Pour the rest of the jar of salsa over and under the stuffed eggplant (we did this just to add some more moisture so the eggplant wouldn't dry out) and sprinkle with some cheese (this is optional, not everybody following the primal/paleo lifestyle includes cheese in their diet).
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the eggplant is tender.
7. ENJOY :)



We just used what we had on hand, but you could easily alter the recipe to add other vegetables into the filling such as onions, bell peppers or broccoli. 

7 comments:

  1. Wow your good! I never attempted to cook eggplant til recently lol. And it wasn't even that great. Thanks for sharing with my NO RULES Weekend Blog Party and for the follow. I'm now your newest GFC follower :)

    Paula
    lifeasweknowitbypaula.blogspot.com

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  2. Thanks for linking up at Sweet Saturday. Very interesting recipe!

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  3. My mouth is already watering just from these pictures! I've only very recently gotten into eggplant and can't wait to try this! Thank you for posting!
    Sapir
    thesapphirequeen.blogspot.com

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  4. Thanks so much for linking today on the GFC Hop! It's great to have you participating. I love seeing everyone who links up.

    Oh, I know you're busy, so just remember to follow your hosts via GFC :)

    And let me know so I can follow back.

    Thanks so much!

    Sincerely,
    Joanna
    www.ModaMamaBlog.com

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  5. So I'd love to hear more about why/how you are doing the Paleo lifestyle. Maybe you've already posted about it and I haven't found it? Anyway, as I have a daughter who has to eat gluten-free anyway, I've been cutting grains just out of convenience.

    I have my first linky party going on right now too, if you'd care to come link up! http://westernwarmth.blogspot.com/2012/09/weekend-warmth.html
    There are no rules involved :).

    Thanks!
    Bobi
    http://westernwarmth.blogspot.com

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  6. Yum! that looks delicious! I'll have to try this recipe out! :)

    xo - Sheila

    If you have time, please come by and check out my blog! And maybe follow?
    http://sheislovely1.blogspot.com

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  7. Ah I Love eggplants! This recipe looks awesome, dude!!

    On another note, congratulations! I've nominated you for the Liebster Award on my blog! I chose your site because you have a quirky personality and blog to match :) You have great posts and always very interesting recipes to try.

    Check my blog for further details on the award. Looking forward to reading your post!

    Christina
    estelachristina.blogspot.com

    p.s. In addition to this nomination, I'm also offering (to those who have buttons available on their sites) to swap buttons. I'll post your button on my page for 30 days and vice versa. Let me know if you're interested :)

    ReplyDelete