TASTE
A reduced-calorie eggplant lasagna
| • | A top chef returns |
By Elaine Magee
Q. I love so many of your recipes. I'm hoping you can help me! I think lasagna is the supreme comfort food. But I was hoping you had a meatless rendition you could share with us.
A. I totally agree with lasagna being the ultimate comfort food, what with strips of pasta, bubbling cheese and simmering sauce. So to create meatless lasagna, I blended two of my favorite dishes: eggplant Parmesan and lasagna, using part-skim mozzarella and whole wheat noodles for added nutrition and less fat.
While boiling the whole-wheat lasagna noodles, you lightly broil the slices of eggplant with a little bit of olive oil. After this you are home free! Just layer the lasagna with already shredded part-skim mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, bottled pizza sauce, the cooked eggplant and lasagna noodles.
A typical lasagna with about the same size serving contains around 580 calories and 25 grams fat, and 13 grams saturated fat.
EGGPLANT PARMESAN LASAGNA
Start boiling 10 cups of water in large soup pot. Add the lasagna noodles and boil until just barely tender. Remove noodles from water and lay them on a rack (so they will drain and not get soggy).
While the lasagna is boiling, start the broiler. Cut the ends from the eggplant, then slice the eggplant into 1/4-inch thick circles. Coat a nonstick jellyroll pan with canola cooking spray. Lay the eggplant slices on the pan and brush the top lightly with olive oil. Broil about 6 inches from the heat for a couple of minutes, watching carefully, until the top is light brown. Flip slices over and broil briefly to brown other side. Remove eggplant and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a small bowl, mix together mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, and green onions.
To assemble lasagna, coat the bottom of an 8-by-8-inch or 9-by-9-inch baking dish with canola cooking spray. Lay about two and a half of the noodles (cut them to fit) evenly over the bottom. Top with half of the pizza sauce, then half of the eggplant and half of the cheese mixture. Layer the last two and half lasagna noodles over the top and repeat layers with remaining pizza sauce, eggplant and cheese mixture.
Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and lightly browned.
Makes 4 servings.
Elaine Magee is a registered dietitian. Lean more at www.recipedoctor.com.
