Eggplant Pizzas
Hi friends! Happy Monday to ya. Hope you had a wonderful weekend. After Saturday’s long run, I spent the day at work, crashed out embarrassingly early, and we spent all of Sunday just hanging out. Picking apples and pears was a blast, we grilled for dinner, ate some of the fudge from the apple orchard and had a dance party past a certain little lady’s bedtime.
We also shared an awesome afternoon snack. The seasonal star of the show: eggplants!
I kind of have a weird thing with eggplants. I love them, but every time I want to cook one, it feels like too much of an ordeal.
My tried and true eggplant recipes are a little more labor intensive, but soooo delicious: eggplant bacon and eggplant parmesan. Because they involve a little more prep and cook time, that means too many wrinkly eggplants have ended up in the trash can. (I feel like a guilty produce waster typing that, but it’s true.) I always end up “saving” the eggplants until I have extra time to create something amazing, but tend to forget that eggplants don’t need a lot of work to taste incredible; usually the simplest things are the most delicious.
We had a beautiful graffiti eggplant from our farm box, so before it got to be too late, I decided to use it as the base for some little pizzas.
I sliced it into thick rounds, then topped with some ghee, salt and pepper,
baked it for a little while (grilling them would probably work well too!),
then added some of our favorite toppings, and baked a little longer to warm everything through.
The eggplants were sturdy enough to provide a nice “crust, and are a great lower-carb option. I love the nutrient boost from eggplants, too.
Some of the benefits:
(Many of the phytonutrients are located in the skin, so make sure to keep in intact and enjoy)
-Great source of fiber, which can aid in digestion and help to keep you feeling full and satisfied. Adding some good fats and protein in these pizza rounds will improve satiety, too. You can also end Vitamin A, folate, B vitamins and vitamin C in eggplants
-Chlorogenic acid is the dominant antioxidant compound in eggplant, which aids in lowering LDL (<— “bad” cholesterol) and a high capacity to fight free radicals
-High in bioflavinoids, which can assist with stress reduction and controlling high blood pressure
-Can prevent blood clots, due to the capillary strengthening benefits of the nutrients
These little pizza rounds would make a beautiful vegetarian side dish or party appetizer, too! As fancy as they look, I still folded mine up to eat like tacos 😉
Hope you love them <3
xoxo
Gina
Eggplant pizzas
A healthy pizza option or fun party appetizer
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 40
Ingredients
- 1 eggplant, sliced into thick rounds
- Olive oil or ghee
- Salt and pepper
- Toppings of choice (I used hummus, goat cheese, tomatoes, bell pepper and fresh basil)
Instructions
- Preheat the ove to 350 and grease a cookie sheet with nonstick spray
- Place the eggplant rounds on the cookie sheet and top with olive oil or ghee, salt and pepper
- Bake for 20 minutes at 350 until soft, but not mushy
- Add your favorite toppings. You can use marinara or hummus for the sauce, and have fun adding your favorite vegetable toppings. Get creative!
- Bake for 10 minutes until everything is heated through
- Garnish with chopped fresh herbs and serve
Notes
- Remember that eggplants can soak up a lot of fat easily. You can use a misto sprayer or nonstick spray if you are watching your fat intake.
- Also, feel free to top with any protein option you love! Sprouted tofu or grilled chicken would be fantastic.
Are you an eggplant fan, or not so much? Any favorite recipes to share?
For another lower carb healthy pizza option, check out this zucchini crust pizza, too!
38 Comments
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Wow, do those look amazing! At first glance, the eggplants looks like mushroom caps to me. I have yet to really start using eggplant in my diet, with the exception of the occasional eggplant parmesan. I definitely want to give this a try!
These look great! I’ve tried the zucchini pizzas and love them, so I bet the eggplant is just as amazing!
I definitely don’t experiment with it enough in my diet!
Coming from an Italian family, I love eggplant almost as much as I love pasta. You should make caponeta sometime!
Those look so good, oh my gosh. I’ve been looking for a little appetizer’ish dish for when I get hungry at work and these look PERFECT! Thanks for sharing 🙂
These look great!
I love eggplants but I definitely keep them on the backburner in the produce bowl until I’m “ready” for them. I also always buy more at the market than I should- which means lots of eggplant during the week. I usually marinate them in balsamic and grill them- this weekend I made eggplant pasta. I love the idea of turning them into mini pizzas, though!
Those look delicious, thanks for sharing the recipe Gina!
These look delicious! My favorite easy thing to do with eggplants in to half them, stud them with garlic, a little olive oil, and salt and bake.
I don’t like eggplant, but that’s probably becaus to usually have it in something stew-like or they’re overlooked. I don’t like the mushyness. But is be willing to give these a whirl, I wonder if baking them improves on the texture.
Sold! These look so good. I love eggplant, but like you I always shy away from making it because of the work load. I could totally make these mini pizzas. I’ve done something similar with portobellos before so I think this would be a nice change!
What a great & simple way to jazz up eggplant! Thanks for the idea!
I love eggplant! I have a vegetarian lasagna recipe that uses eggplant. It is super tasty and healthy (and husband approved!): http://www.thefitscoop.com/recipe-hearty-vegetable-lasagna/
Yum! Now I’m craving pizza!
Wow, these look amazing! I love this type of ‘healthier-than’ recipe…in fact, I might make it for my potluck tonight 🙂
I love eggplant! I think they can be a little bit difficult to cook with sometimes but I love them anyway. Great idea with the pizza! I might have to try it out if they have some good eggplant at the farmer’s market this week!
I love this idea especially since in the summer we have eggplant overload thanks to the garden. I love making pizza healthier too! Great recipe!
totally feel you on the eggplant ordeal! haha but I am always soooo happy when I’m eating them!
These pizza’s look awesome! I like eggplant when its prepared for me but have not had much luck when cooking them myself. I will have to try this recipe because it looks too good not to try!!!
so pretty!! they’d be an excellent party food 🙂
I’d never cooked eggplant before until I started getting them regularly in my CSA pick up. But they are super skinny (compared to the ones I’ve seen in the grocery store), so not sure how they’d do as a base, unless I was making little poppers. I did eggplant parm and just sauteed it with some other veggies, but I really should roast it, huh?!
Omg these look delicious! Thanks for sharing!
i’ve been guilty of tossing out a few wrinkly eggplants, as well! i absolutely love this recipe idea, though, and hope to try it soon! (hummus + eggplant sounds like a winning combo, for sure :))
What a great idea! This would be great for a party
I love eggplants, and I already love your zucchini pizza crust, so I’ll definitely have to give these a try! I admit I’m a little scared of trying ghee, though!
Will we be sent an email when the DVDs are mailed?:)
if you preordered, they were mailed! you should have it today or tomorrow 🙂
I love eggplant in pizza & Ina Garten’s Orzo with Roasted Vegetables.
I just received your Solibeat dvds in the mail today. Cant wait to try it; so proud of you!!
omggggg!!! so so excited! text me and let me know what you think 🙂
xoxo
these look delish! i really like eggplant, but ruin them every time i try to cook them!
I’m a little embarrassed to admit I’ve never cooked eggplant before! They kind of scare me. Maybe it’s a texture thing? My fiancé is a type 1 diabetic though so I’m always looking for low-carb dishes. This looks like an awesome way to eat pizza with fewer carbs!
Eggplant is the best! I just did a post last Friday on the health benefits of eggplant and surprisingly, there are some really good ones. These eggplant pizzas sound terrific!
These look great! I love eggplant and pizza
These look so pretty!! Love the idea of making pizzas with them.
I use eggplant to make hummus/dip – it’s so delicious. http://fitswisschick.com/2013/01/29/tuesday-recipes-savory-sides/
Eggplant is good – except for the fact that I’m not a fan of the skin – it never breaks down enough to be really easy to chew? I end up eating the meat of the eggplant but the skin usually comes off in a big strip. Maybe it’s the kind of eggplant I’m using, who knows!
Mo
I thought you had posted something similar to this before, but it was the zucchini pizzas! Eggplant, what I great idea. And they are so yummy baked.
One of my favorite simple ways to cook eggplants is:
Slice eggplants in half, and make small slits in the flesh and lay skin side down in a baking dish. Then slice garlic and slide a slice into all the slits in the eggplant. Finally drizzle the eggplant halves with olive oil, and sprinkle on some fresh ground pepper and sea salt. Then bake until soft. Scoop out the flesh and eat! Yum!
Are you following the Paleo diet now? I noticed a lot of your recent recipes are Paelo or include Paleo staples.
no, i like goat cheese and brown rice too much 🙂 i tend to eat more on the paleo side since i’m mostly gluten and dairy free
I love eggplant and this recipe sounds great! Thanks for sharing.
If you blog hop, will you stop by my party this Wednesday to share the link?
My readers will LOVE it. ?