Hello my peoples.
My apologies once again for the lag in posting. I was busy getting married. Who would have thought that getting married would actually take me away from my favorite things - writing and cooking!
I have recently started to delve into sulfite-free, soy-free vegan cooking and baking, mostly as a challenge but also knowing that a way to conquer my food allergy is to eat as clean and as healthy as possible. So here I am - back with a YUMMY sulfite-free, soy-free "cheesy" eggplant dinner. This meal took me about an hour from start to finish to make. The longest part is roasting the tomatoes and letting the eggplant drain but trust me it's worth it! I broke it up into parts and so if you want to piece this recipe into other recipes then you can mix and match easily. This recipe came solely from my head. I had done some previous research on roasting tomatoes and draining eggplant properly but other than that, this was a giant Monday science experiment.
ROASTED TOMATOES
4-5 medium tomatoes
Olive oil
Salt
1-2 Tablespoons of chopped fresh basil
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut tomatoes into quarters. Place on a cookie sheet (covered with aluminum foil) skin side down and brush with olive oil and salt lightly. Cook in oven for 30 minutes. Once done, take the tomatoes out and let cool for about 10 minutes before peeling the skin off the tomatoes. Once the skin is peeled, take the "insides" of the tomato and place in a bowl and mash with a fork. Mix in chopped basil and salt to taste. Put aside.
EGGPLANT BASE
2 small eggplant (or 1 large eggplant)
Salt
Olive oil
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Slice eggplant long ways to create long, thin bases. Lightly salt both sides and sit eggplant in a strainer over the sink for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, water will have sweated out of the eggplant. Pat dry with paper towel until dry. Place on non-stick cookie sheet and lightly brush with olive oil. Bake in oven for 10 minutes, flipping the eggplant over after 5 minutes. Remove from oven.
RICOTTA "CHEESE"
1 to 1 1/4 cup of unsalted non-roasted cashews
1/4 cup of filtered water
1/4 cup of freshly chopped basil
2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
Sea salt
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
Place cashews, filtered water, and about 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt in a bowl to soak for about 30 minutes. Once soaked, dump the bowl into a food processor. Add lemon and nutritional yeast and blend until creamy (takes about 10-15 minutes). Remove from processor and place in seal-tight container.
EGGPLANT ROLL UP
Take the ricotta "cheese" across the cooked eggplant base. Add chopped basil and roll up. Bake in oven for additional 5-10 minutes. Serve with roasted tomato sauce on top.
