Baked Eggplant with Savory Cheese Stuffing

Eggplant makes a satisfying vegetarian dinner when stuffed with tomato and peppers and served with rice. Feta cheese adds tang and body to the stuffing.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 stuffed eggplant half)

Ingredients

• 2  medium eggplants, each cut in half lengthwise (about 2 pounds)
• Cooking spray
• 1  (1-ounce) slice white bread
• 1  teaspoon  extravirgin olive oil
• 1 1/2  cups  finely chopped onion
• 1 1/4  cups  finely chopped red bell pepper
• 1  cup  finely chopped seeded plum tomato
• 1  teaspoon  chopped fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 3/4  cup  (3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4  cup  chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 3/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

Score cut side of each eggplant half by making 4 crosswise cuts. Place the eggplant halves, cut sides down, on a foil-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 25 minutes or until tender. Remove from oven; cool on pan 10 minutes. Carefully remove pulp, leaving a 1/3-inch-thick shell; reserve eggplant shells. Chop pulp.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°.

Place bread in a food processor; pulse 10 times or until coarse crumbs measure 1/2 cup. Drizzle the breadcrumbs with olive oil, and pulse to combine.

Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes. Stir in the chopped eggplant, bell pepper, tomato, oregano, and garlic; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and cook 5 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in cheese, parsley, salt, and black pepper. Stuff each eggplant shell with about 1/2 cup onion mixture; sprinkle with breadcrumb mixture. Place on a baking sheet; bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated and lightly browned.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

178 (28% from fat)

Fat:

5.5g (sat 2.6g,mono 2g,poly 0.6g)

Protein:

8.3g

Carbohydrate:

28.4g

Fiber:

8.5g

Cholesterol:

8mg

Iron:

1.6mg

Sodium:

749mg

Calcium:

126mg