Eggplants. They are more late summer staple food. Best part, they are still available everywhere, so I guess was a good year 🙂 And yes, I still feel like it’s late summer, can’t help myself. For today, I made stuffed eggplants with tasty turkey sausage (hello! finished with pumpkin mania, here comes the turkey:) ) Perfect dinner, healthy and light!….and super delicious. Even the kids will ask for seconds.
For this recipe I have used Tuscan style turkey ground sausage meat (bought them at my local WholeFoods). They are a little bit more flavored than the regular Italian Turkey ones with a mix of anise, fennel, garlic (I cannot have a sausage without garlic, like ever), paprika and parsley. You can use any type of turkey sausage, plain one, spicy…any type.
Let me tell you how easy is to make these turkey sausage stuffed eggplants. First, you need to cut the eggplants in half, drizzle some olive oil and season with salt and pepper and bake them in the oven for almost 30 minutes. Once they are soft, you scoop out most of the flesh, leaving a thin layer next to the skin, mix it with already sautéed shallots, red peppers and turkey sausage and distribute the mixture back into the eggplant shells, sprinkle some cheese on top and return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes. Pretty simple and ready to be served straight out from the oven!
Before I indulge myself into these turkey sausage stuffed eggplants I want to say a big welcome to all my new subscribers…welcome to the club! October has been such an amazing month for Through Oana’s Lens. Thank you, all, for making it happen 🙂
So, get ready for some delicious food! November will be all about celebrating Thanksgiving through food. Starting from next week, I all have 3 different Thanksgiving menu options on the blog. Yes, just 3 weeks left till one of my favorite celebrations! Let me know if you are interested in any new particular recipe so I can make and test it for you!
Turkey sausage stuffed eggplants
Ingredients
- 4 medium eggplants, halved
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium shallot, finely sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 turkey sausages, skinned and broken into small pieces
- 1 tsp fresh basil, finely chopped
- cheese
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F/200C. Put the halved eggplants on a baking sheet, drizzle with 3tbsp of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for around 30 minutes until really soft.
- Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in a frying pan and gently cook the shallots and diced red bell pepper for 10-15 minutes until soft. Add the minced garlic and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Set aside and transfer to a bowl.
- Add the sausage pieces to the pan and fry until golden brown, then add to the shallots and pepper mixture. Once the eggplants are cooked, scoop out most of the flesh, leaving a thin layer next to the skin. Roughly chop the scooped-out flesh and add it to the the sausage mixture. Season and stir through the fresh chopped basil.
- Spoon the mixture back into the eggplant shells, then spread the cheese on top of them. Cook for another 10 minutes.
Notes
This recipe was adapted from Delicious magazine.
Nutrition Information:
Serving Size:
1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Unsaturated Fat: 0g
Oana Iancu
Thursday 6th of November 2014
I don't think he will have a problem with the taste. I don't like big chunks of eggplant, not so found of it as a stew or else, just in small quantities. Hope he will like them!