Berenjenas Rellenas, or Stuffed Eggplants, is a healthy dish from Spain with vegetables, and perfect for special occasions if you want to impress your guests!
Eggplants or Aubergines, have their origins in southern and eastern Asia, and were brought to the Mediterranean zone by Arabs. In Spain, concretely, the most common eggplant is and ovoid fruit (not a vegetable!) with dark purple skin. Some studies in Brazil showed eggplant reduces cholesterol in a 35% and is also good to treat hypercholesterolemia. (“excess of cholesterol in the blood and cells”). It also contains a lot of fiber and is low in calories, sodium free.
Note the only non-healthy ingredient below is bacon. If you just prefer to cook a healthier/vegetarian recipe, don't follow steps 8 and 12.
Ingredients: (Serves 3)
- 3 Eggplants. (1 medium-sized eggplant per person)
- 1 big squash (courgette), or 2 in case they are not very big.
- ½ onion
- 1 green bell pepper, not very big.
- 4 big mushrooms / 8-10 small mushrooms (if you like them!) either fresh or canned.
- Salt
- Olive Oil
- Parmesan Cheese
- Milk
- 3 not very thick slices of bacon
Directions:
- Remove eggplants stems and wash them.
- Cut them in half lengthwise.
- With a knife, scrape out the inside of every half eggplant, delimitating first the area between the skin and the inside, so that we can easily remove the content of the eggplant later
- Preheat the oven (medium heat) for some 10-15 minutes, and meanwhile cut the eggplant insides into thin, not very big portions. Chop too the onion, pepper, mushrooms and courgette (squash).
- When the oven is ready, place the halves eggplant in the oven and roast them (medium heat) until you see they are a little beat brown, and their inside face is cooked.
- Heat a spoonful of oil on a frying pan, which shouldn’t be very small, and when hot, add all the chopped ingredients: eggplant insides, onion, pepper and squash (low heat).
- Add some salt and remove it from time to time, until you see all the ingredients are cooked.
- Meanwhile, using a small pan, add some oil and when hot, add chopped bacon. Let it fry, but not too much
- When you see the vegetables on the frying pan are ready, you will also notice there is some “liquid”. If so, high-heat until liquid evaporates.
- Add some milk let it all cook unitl you notice milk make the mixture more consistent. (But be carefull it does not stick!)
- Add some Parmesan cheese and mix.
- Add the fried bacon and mix. Now it is ready.
- Take the roasted halves eggplant and fill them with the vegetables mixture. Cover them with some Parmesan cheese and cook them in the oven until you see the cheese has melt.
¡Que aproveche!
The copyright of the article Berenjenas Rellenas in Spanish Food is owned by Angeles Fernández. Permission to republish Berenjenas Rellenas must be granted by the author in writing.
