Baked Eggplant Rolls Stuffed with Sausage & Veggies

Need a delicious, healthy new way to cook eggplant? This one’s a guaranteed crowd-pleaser and flexible enough to work with whatever you’ve got in the fridge.

Basic breakdown:

1. Make the meat & veggie sauce
2. Roast the eggplant slices
3. Roll the meat & veggie sauce in the eggplant slices
4. Coat everything in more sauce & bake til bubbly!

You can push and pull the recipe around to make it more decadent or more healthy. This base recipe can serve as a great way to get more veggies into your diet while not giving up any taste factor!

So, let’s get to it!

First, brown the meat in large sauce pan.

While the meat is browning, slice the eggplant and roast it.

  

Once the meat is browned, drain out the excess oil. Add the onion and garlic.

And wine…

Add the veggies! I used Kale, zucchini, corn. Feel free to use whatever you’ve got in the fridge.

Cook it all down. MMMMmmm!

Ok. Now get ready to ROLL.

Place some of the sauce in a slice of eggplant, roll it up, and place it in a baking dish.

Line em up!

Cover it all in sauce and slices of fresh mozzarella. Top off with a dusting of breadcrumbs.

Pop it in the oven til you get some nice crispy edges. I may have over cooked it some, but it is all good.

Let it rest 5 min before scooping it out and serving up that goodness!

Top with some basil and serve with a salad (maybe Kale salad!)

This recipe is super flexible. Sub in a homemade pasta sauce to ensure it is gluten free. Sub a meat substitute to to make it vegetarian friendly.

Check below for the full recipe. Let me know what you guys think about this new format. Figured it would make it easier to print out the recipe this way!

Ingredients: 1 large or 2 medium eggplants 3-4 leaves of kale 1 cob of corn 1 zucchini 1 medium yellow or white onion 1 bunch parsley 2 cans of your favorite pasta sauce (I used Newman’s Own Cabernet Marinara Sauce) 1 cup red wine (cabernet is great!) 1/2 lb hot Italian sausage (I used chicken sausage) 1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage (I used pork sausage) 1 ball of fresh mozzarella 1 TB bread crumbs Bunch fresh basil Steps: 1. Heat the oven to 350. 2. Heat up a large sauce pan to medium high. Remove the sausage from the casing and toss it in the pan to brown it, breaking it up into chunks. 3. While the sausage is browning, slice the eggplant lengthwise into thin strips. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with foil & sprayed with olive oil. Place the cookie sheet into oven and bake for about 15 minutes until brownish on the edges. 4. Dice the onion and zucchini. Slice up the kale. Cut the corn off the cob. Chop up the parsley. 5. Back to the pan! Pour out the excess oil and place the meat on a plate on the side. Add the onion into the pan and sautee til translucent (2 mins). Add the zucchini, kale, and corn. Sautee for 1 minute.  Add the meat back to the pan. 6. Pour one can of pasta sauce into the pan and stir to combine. As the sauce starts bubbling, add the cup of wine and stir it in. Continue cooking at medium low for 15-20 min. Taste and adjust the seasonings. I like to add some ground black pepper! 7. Now it’s ROLL TIME! Spoon some sauce into the bottom of a baking pan. Take a slice of eggplant and put a spoonful of meat sauce in the middle. Roll it up and place it in the pan. Continue with the rest of the eggplant. 8. Pour sauce over everything. Slice up the the mozzarella and place on top. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top and pop the whole thing in the oven for 20 minutes. 9. It’s ready when the top is just getting a lil browned on the edges. Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes before serving.