Truth, my favorite thing to do with eggplant is roast it, blend it, and make babaganoush! However, I’ve been on a mission to revamp old recipes and to explore new avenues with eggplant. While developing new concepts, this classic dish came to mind and I knew that I just had to remake it!
I’ll be honest, it had been so long since I had made it I worried, “would it taste as good as I remembered?”. The answer is, ..yes! It actually tasted better than what I remember and is just so effortless to make considering the amount you can make with just this recipe!
When it comes to a red sauce, I prefer to just whip up my own. Many can be laden with sugar, preservatives, and I just prefer to control the flavor in my sauce and take it in the direction I want.
Did you know that tomatoes provide the most lycopene when heated?! I’m not sure what it is, but out of all the nutrients my skin responds immediately to lycopene. Needless to say, you’ll always find red veggies in my fridge!
This recipes is a keeper as it’s packed with veggies, accessible and affordable ingredients, can easily be made in bulk, easy, cheesy, and you can use this sauce recipe for any pasta dish and the filling for a lasagna!
If you love classic staple vegan dishes, you have to try my vegan Eggplant Rollatini with basil tofu cheese!
3/4 cup Follow Your Heart Parmesan vegan cheese (more for topping)
Tomato Sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1 can of organic whole peeled tomatoes, chopped, save the juice
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbs red wine vinegar
1 tbs red pepper
salt and pepper (½ teaspoon of each)
1 cup kale, (removed from stems, shredded)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Slice each eggplant lengthwise into 1/2 “ thick sections. Line baking sheets with parchment paper (will help them not to stick) and grease with olive oil and top with salt and pepper. Lay them out on the lined cookie sheet, not touching. Cook at 375 degrees F for around 15-20 min or until tender. Remove eggplant once tender and place them on a drying rack or flip occasionally while cooling to prevent condensation making them too moist.
While eggplant is in the oven heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the chopped garlic, cook for 2 minutes. Then add the chopped onion, cook for 5-7 until translucent. Season with red pepper, salt, black pepper. Now add the basil and kale, tomatoes, red wine vinegar. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10-15 minutes to thicken the sauce, then remove from heat.
In a food processor combine the drained tofu, kale, vegan parmesan cheese, basil, lemon juice, garlic salt, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper, and pulse until it forms almost a paste. Try not to over process.
Pour the tomato sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of tofu mixture on the wider end of the eggplant and roll them up. Place each roll seam side down into the sauce. Place the dish into the oven for 15-20 minutes more until hot.