Tomato Stuffed Eggplant

I was bored and we needed to use eggplants and tomatoes from the farm basket... I started looking up recipes for 'eggplants' and 'tomatoes' and found one that had breadcrumbs and cheese and oil and was like 350 calories each. It looked delicious, but I eat all day every day, and can usually not afford to have 350 calories come any single item in a meal.

I got to thinking - what if I just stuffed the eggplant with homemade salsa? It's easy, low calorie and fat free. Winning combination. Now - I will preface this with I used 2 eggplants and said the serving size was 4 people. This would be ideal for lunch, if paired with hummus and a protein; a light afternoon snack; or a side at dinner.

Even though I had already had dinner and dessert, I decided I was still hungry, and rather than indulging in speculoos right from the jar (that can get ugly quickly), I had one as a second dinner, and it was just enough to 'hit the spot' as my dad would say.

I'm going to do the step by step with pictures, because - why not.

1. Hollow out the eggplant. I found it easiest to carefully cut 'cubes' without piercing the shell before scooping it out with a spoon. Save the insides from one of the eggplants for step 3.

 2. Place eggplant shells in a casserole dish and preheat oven 450 degrees.

 3. Use a handy dandy food chopper and dice the eggplant really finely. Transfer to a small bowl. 

 4. Do the same thing for the tomatoes and garlic. If you have really juicy tomatoes, drain some of the liquid first.

 5. Mix together your salsa, season with salt, pepper, cayenne to taste.

 6. Dice 1/2 of each chive. Cut the remaining 1/2 in half for garnish.









7. Spoon salsa into eggplant shells. Top with diced chives and garnish with the larger pieces.

8. Bake at 450 degrees for 30minutes and enjoy it pipping hot! 
I would assume it would be good cold as well. That's how I plan to eat it tomorrow at lunch with a dollop of Sabra Roasted Garlic Hummus and some Trader Joe's Meatless balls for protein.

Rough Nutrition Breakdown: