vegan eggplant parmesan.

We got a whole box of eggplants at the $10 farmers market recently, so I've been doing a lot of cooking with eggplants the past week or so. At first taste, they aren't super amazing unless you know what to do with them.  After my many eggplant experimentations, I've learned two things make them taste amazing: spices and broiling.  Now I put eggplants on my shopping list, instead of just trying to figure out what to do with them when I get them at the farmer's market.

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

5-7 eggplants

1/2 large red onion

1 block extra-firm tofu, drained
frozen chopped spinach, thawed (about 1/3 to 1/2 bag)

Nutritional yeast

Salt

Granulated garlic

Basil

Chili powder

Black olives, sliced

1 bell pepper, diced

1 jar pasta sauce

I first peel the eggplants (a LOT of them, since they shrink like crazy when they broil), then spread them onto a cooking sheet. I sliced red onions & sprinkled them on top. I sprinkled the whole thing with salt, granulated garlic, basil, and chili powder. (You can adjust it to whatever spices you like best.)  Pop into the oven and broil on low until the tops are brown (about 7-10 minutes).  Pull out of the oven, flip eggplant slices over & broil 'til the other side is browned. Remove from oven and lower heat to 390.

Crumble a block of extra firm tofu into a bowl and mix with frozen chopped spinach, salt, basil and about 1/3 cup nutritional yeast (aka "nooch").  It might sound weird, but the crumbled tofu mixture tastes just like ricotta when baked like this in Italian dishes. (I've been adding crumbled tofu to lasagna for 20 years and people can't tell the difference!)

Spread enough pasta sauce into the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan to just cover it, put a layer of broiled eggplant, then chopped bell pepper and sliced black olives. Sprinkle half the tofu mixture, then add more pasta sauce and repeat the layers a second time.  Sprinkle liberally with more nooch & put in the oven until browned on top.