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This recipe is a bit different to your usual stuffed eggplant recipes, which are usually based around tomato and cheese, and bound with breadcrumbs and egg. The contents of this are much looser, but it’s tasty, fresh, and not difficult to make.

Okra is probably not a vegetable many people like or are familiar with, but when I learnt about it’s healing properties for the digestive system (that gooeyness that grosses people out is very good for you) I endeavoured to come up with a way to make it more palatable. Roasting did the trick for me. It’s got a different texture than you’d be used to but I really enjoyed it. Go on, be brave, give it a try!

While baking potatoes whole takes time, I think it’s worth it because all you have to do is put it in the oven and let it do it’s thing, leaving you free to make the rest of dinner, and the end result is always scrumptious. I like to cut a cross into the top of the potato once it’s cooked, give it a quick squeeze and then put a teaspoon of butter in the top where let it melt down into the fluffy insides. So good.

~Serves 2~

Ingredients

• Stuffed eggplant
• 1 large eggplant
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp thyme leaves
• ¼ fennel bulb, or 1 tsp fennel seeds if fresh fennel is out of season
• 1-2 button or swiss brown mushrooms, diced.
• Small handful flat leaf parsley
• 1 tray okra
• 2 small potatoes
• Pinch dried chilli

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Scrub the potatoes them wrap up in foil with a small knob of butter and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Place in the oven, you can put them directly onto the oven racks. These take at least an hour, preferably an hour and a half. Have a bit of a break before you start of the rest of the meal.

Trim the stalk off the top of the eggplant then halve it lengthwise. Scoop out the flesh from the inside (keep this), leaving approximately 1cm of a shell.

Place the eggplants in a tray, skin side up and drizzle with olive oil and crack on some pepper. Place in the oven while you’re preparing the stuffing.

Heat a frying pan on medium heat, and add some olive oil, butter, ghee or coconut oil. Add the onion and fennel and cook until it starts to soften. Crush in the garlic and continue to stir for another minute.

Dice up the flesh from inside the eggplant and add to the pan along with the mushroom.  Cook for another 2 minutes, then season with salt and pepper.

Take the eggplant shells out of the oven, turn them over then spoon in the stuffing. Place back into the oven and cook until the eggplant shell is cooked through and the top of the stuffing looks like it is starting to turn crispy, about 20-30 minutes.

Trim the ends off the okra and place into a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and dried chilli flakes. Place into the oven and cook until they start to turn golden, about 20 minutes.

Place everything onto a plate to serve, sprinkle over the parsley leaves, and enjoy!

So were you brave and gave okra a try? I’m keen to hear how you went!

The post Stuffed Baked Eggplant with Baked Potato and Okra Recipe. appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Pizza is super easy and fun to make and is a great way to get the kids to eat lots of veggies.  This pizza is high in fibre , vitamins and minerals and low in sodium.  If you’re not going overboard with the amount you’re eating, and your toppings are fresh and mostly veggies then pizza can be healthy.

I made my own base and sauce but you can get them ready made.  Try to avoid the bases and sauces with too much salt, preservatives and additives in them.  Lebanese bread is a good option as a base, or you can buy spelt and gluten free bases from some supermarkets or online. If you don’t want to use tomato sauce, you can use a pesto made with basil and/or coriander (again, avoid preservatives) or make your own pesto – below is the ingredients for both sauces.

Ingredients

To make 2 large pizzas

Pizza Base

1 7g sachet dry yeast

1 tsp honey

3-4 cups spelt flour or strong unbleached flour

Tomato Sauce

1 brown onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1kg tomatoes

Handful basil

Salt and pepper, to salt

1 tsp dried oregano

Pesto Sauce

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves

½ cup packed fresh coriander leaves

2 tbsp sunflower seeds

2 tsp capers

4 kalamata olives, pitted

4 sundried tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Pinch of sea salt

Pizza Toppings

Add as many veggies as you can, this is a great way to get some extra veggies into the kids.

Choose from:

Finely chopped kale, Onion, Capsicum, Eggplant, Shiitake mushrooms, Swiss brown or button mushrooms, onion, thinly sliced sweet potato, thinly sliced and chopped radish, olives, chopped green beans, corn, broccoli, spinach, asparagus.

Top with mozarella cheese or a vegan alternative such as tofutti

Method

To make the dough:

Start this at least 90 minutes before.

Dissolve yeast sachet in a glass or pyrex (not metal) bowl with a glass of warm water and a tsp honey.  Add 1/2 cup spelt flour and stir.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes to activate the yeast, it should become bubbly and foamy.

Gradually stir in the rest of the flour until it becomes a good dough consistency (smooth and stretchy, a little sticky but not too wet).  Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or let your food processor knead it for you with the dough hook.  If you’ve used the food processor, transfer the dough back to a glass bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil to stop it drying out, then cover the top of the bowl with a plate.  Let it sit somewhere warm for at least an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Separate the dough into 2 pieces and pull into a rough circle shape.  Roll out so it’s a few mm thin.  If you’re talented you could throw it around like this guy.

To make the tomato sauce:

Cut a cross over the top of the tomatoes. Blanch them in boiling water for one minute so the skin is easy to peel off. Allow them to cool and then peel the skin off, discard the seeds and roughly chop the flesh.

Gently fry the onion over a medium heat until soft in a little olive oil.  Add the garlic and fry for a futher minute.  Add the tomatoes and oregano and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for approximately 30-40 minutes.

Puree with a stick blender until smooth.  Season to taste and add the finely chopped basil.

To make the pesto sauce:

In a food processor, combine basil, coriander, sunflower seeds, capers, olives, sundried tomatoes, and garlic; pulse a few times.  Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream with the food processor running.  Stop to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula.  Add a pinch of salt to taste.

Assembling the Pizza

Preheat the oven to 200C.

If you are making the dough from scratch and like me you’re not amazing at throwing dough around so it’s crazy thin, you’ll need to precook the dough for 10min so that the dough isn’t soggy.

Once you’ve done that, spread on your chosen sauce, and layer on heaps of veggies.  Sprinkle with cheese and cook until it’s golden brown.

 
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A delicious eggplant recipe, you can use this on pizza, in salad, as an antipasto, in sandwiches or wraps or put in other dishes, or eat on it’s own. For those who don’t normally like eggplant this one for you to try.

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant or 2-3 thin eggplants
• 2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
• 1 teaspoon Dried Basil
• 1/2 teaspoon Dried Thyme
• 1 teaspoon Smokey Paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon Chilli Flakes (optional)
• to taste Salt
• to taste Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Method

Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Cut eggplants in half length-wise, leaving stem ends intact.

Mix garlic and olive oil in a small bowl. Combine oregano, basil, thyme, paprika and chilli flakes in separate bowl and stir to mix.

Lightly brush cut sides of eggplants with garlic-oil mixture and grill, cut side down, until lightly browned, about 3 minutes.

Lightly brush skin sides with oil mixture. Invert eggplants and brush tops with remaining oil.

Sprinkle tops with dried herb mixture and salt and pepper to taste.

Continue cooking eggplants, cute side up until very tender, 6-8 minutes, or as needed.

Tips
Eggplants are actually berries, and are a member of the deadly nightshade family. They were originally named Solanum insanum as Europeans believed eating would cause instant insanity. The name was later changed in the thirteenth century by the Arabs in Catalonia to Solanum melongena. They were originally the size and shape of eggs.

Eggplant has cooling properties and reduces yang energy. Eggplants are thought to bring energy and blood to the uterus, which is why in Asia pregnant women are advised to eat eggplant sparingly.

Eggplants are mostly water and so are low in calories. They are high in fibre and are a good source of potassium, manganese, molybdenum and are also a source of the anti-oxidant Nasunin.

Being part of the deadly nightshade family, it is recommended that people with arthritis have eggplant in moderation, if at all.

The post BBQ Eggplant appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant
• 3 tablespoons tahini (sesame-seed paste, preferably unhulled)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon chilli powder
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Smoke paprika

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Roast eggplant (whole) in oven for 30 minutes or until tender.

3. Let eggplant cool, then peel the skin and put it into a food processer.

4.  Add remaining ingredients, withholding oil and paprika.

5.  Blend until you get a consistency that you like, drizzling in a little oil to make it a bit creamier if you want.

6.  Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of paprika.  Pretty and yum!

Tips

Make sure you check the flavouring of this before you finish, because the size of the eggplant can affect the ratios. 

The addition of the eggplant helps to give this a bit more fibre.

You can add more cumin and lemon if you wish!

Serve with a variety of vegies to dip into it.  2-3 tbsp of this dip with some vegies (such as carrot sticks, celery, capsium, cucumber, asparagus spears) is a great snack that’s rich in protein and fibre.
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• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, finely grated
• 1/2 brown onion
• 2 anchovies ( or as many as you like)
• ½ cup cooked millet
• ½ cup mixed herbs like oregano and/or basil, chopped
• ¼ cup olives, roughly chopped
• 1 red capsicum, halved and de-seeded
• 1 large tomato, halved and de-seeded
• 1 eggplant, halved and flesh partly scooped out
• 1 zucchini, halved and de-seeded
• 1 tbsp capers
• preserved lemon rind to taste

Method

Using the absorption method, cook the millet until tender.

In a pan lightly cook the garlic, onion and anchovies with the oil then mix through the millet, herbs, olives and left over veggies. Stuff this mixture into the vegetables, drizzle with olive oil and bake in oven at 180°C until the veggies are soft and the stuffing is crispy.

Enjoy!

The post Stuffed Veggies Recipe appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.