Ketogenic-ized Recipe: Eggplant Hasselback

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How is the New Year treating you so far?  We are all the way into it by five days already! I hope it’s going well. I wanted to share this recipe with you that I made last night: “Ketogenic-ized” Eggplant Hasselback Recipe.

Originally, I made this recipe for a Holiday get-together last year, and it was a total hit! I understand that some people would turn their nose up at eggplant – it’s not high on the list of favorites for everybody – but my gathering of family was keeping an open mind about how it was going to taste. They were glad that they did!

The wait was over! Out it came from the oven, and it looked and smelled scrumptious! But the best part was in the eating – it tasted great! Smiles all around and lots of “yum’s” from the crowd. Whew! Success. It’s not really wise to try out a new recipe on a crowd, but I followed my instinct, and it worked out fine.

Had to Make Some Modification For the Ketogenic Eating

So, now that we are eating a ketogenic diet for the 14-day challenge, I made it slightly differently, which I will explain now.  As you might remember, with ketogenic eating, there is absolutely no sugar or grains permitted to sneak into your food in the beginning of your keto adventure.

The original recipe called for Panko bread crumbs which I substituted with smashed up pork rinds. I have used the pork rinds in a few other keto recipes in place of breadcrumbs, and it is surprisingly good; a really great substitute.

The recipe called for marinara sauce, but instead of opening a can of that which probably contained some amount of sugar, I used organic diced tomatoes and smashed them with a potato masher. This worked great as a base under the eggplant in the pan.

I substituted Monterey Jack cheese for the Mozzarella cheese – not sure if this helped with the keto plan or not, but it was what I had on hand and worked just fine.

We love garlic – how about you? The more the better as far as we’re concerned, so instead of only two cloves, I used six or eight, depending on the size of the cloves. This gets diced and then sprinkled on top before baking – adds great flavor!

So here it is. Please let me know if you try this recipe and how it turned out. A hit or not?

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Ketogenic-ized Eggplant Hasselback Recipe

This dish always makes a hit, and not everyone likes eggplant! This and more are found on https://ChristinesHealthyWorld.com Join us for more good recipes.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant
• 1 can organic diced tomatoes Smashed
• 1 Tomato sliced
• 10 - 16 fresh leaves basil enough to put one or two leaves in between the slices
• 5 - 8 slices Monterey Jack cheese slices to fit in between slices and some shredded to go on top
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 6 - 8 cloves garlic minced
• 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive oil I sprinkled quite generously over the top before baking. Olive Oil is “good” oil!
• ¼ cup pork rinds smashed to bread crumb size
• 2 tablespoon parmesan cheese grated (optional - I didn’t use this because I didn’t have it on hand - I used shredded cheese instead)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper

Instructions

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C.
2. Cut eggplant lengthwise, keeping it connected at the stem.
3. In a baking dish, place diced tomato sauce and spread to cover the bottom.
4. Place the eggplant directly on the sauce.
5. Slice the tomato and Monterey Jack into thin slices. Alternate tomatoes, fresh basil, and cheese in each eggplant slice. (I put all three in between each slice - yum!)
6. Sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic, and olive oil and cover with foil and bake for 50 minutes until eggplant is tender.
7. In a small bowl, combine crumbed pork rinds, shredded cheese, salt, and pepper.
8. Place this mixture on top of the eggplant and bake uncovered for another 5 minutes. Or until the  pork rind crumbs are golden brown.
9. Cut into your desired piece and enjoy!

 Bon Appetit!

As a side dish, we steamed some broccoli, which was delicious. Asparagus would be good, too.  We will be enjoying the leftovers of this meal again tonight!

P.S.  The pictures on this post are just before this yummy dish went into the oven. Next time I make it, I’ll include photos of the finished product which looks even more enticing.  Better yet, give it a try yourself!