Healthy Eggplant Parmigiana
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Cooking time: 60 minutes
- 1kg/2.2lbs eggplant
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 700g/25ozs. pasta sauce (I used my home made tomato pasta sauce)
- 1 quantity bechamel sauce (see recipe below)
- 100g/3.5ozs. mozzarella (I used bocconcini cherries)
- 3/4 cup/70g/2.4ozs. panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup/50g/1.7ozs. grated parmesan cheese
- 50g/1.7ozs. butter, cubed
Bechamel sauce
- 25g/1oz. butter
- 25g/1oz. flour
- 250ml/8.8flozs milk, heated
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Step 1 - Slice the eggplant into 1cm/1.2 an inch slices. Place a large pot of water to boil and add the salt. Simmer the eggplant slices in batches for around 5 minutes each batch until soft. Place on double layered paper towels once done. Note: you can do this step a couple of days ahead of time and keep the eggplant slices in the fridge which is what I did.
Step 2 - Make the bechamel sauce. Add the butter to a small saucepan and melt. Add the flour and cook the flour in the butter for a minute. Add the milk gradually and stir until smooth. Add salt and nutmeg.
Thermomix bechamel recipe note: add all ingredients in the Thermomix and set to 7 minutes, 90C and speed 4.
Step 3 - Take a baking dish around 6-7 cups in capacity. Place a third of the tomato pasta sauce on the base and then top with eggplant. Layer alternating with tomato, eggplant and bechamel. My order is (it doesn't have to be strictly like this).
1 - Tomato sauce
2 - Eggplant
3 - Tomato sauce
4 - Eggplant
5 - Bechamel
6 - Eggplant
7 - Bechamel
8 - Tomato sauce
Step 4 - The final layer of the panko breadcrumbs, parmesan, mozzarella and butter cubes. Bake at 200C/400F for 30-35 minutes.