Eggplant Lasagna

Lasagna is a great winter comfort dish, but the calories add up quickly! In an effort to reduce calories and carbs, I came up with the following recipe which happens to be low calorie AND gluten free!

While I typically use 99% lean ground turkey in my recipes, I opted for 93% lean ground turkey due to using non-fat and reduced fat cheeses which tends to make the lasagna a bit drier. The lasagna was still a tad on the dry side, so if you are very picky with wanting a gooey lasagna, increase some of the fat on the cheeses.

This recipe also skips red sauce. If you'd like sauce, add it in. You can do this in the traditional way with layers or you can add to the top when serving. As an alternative to red sauce, you can also use stewed tomatoes.


Servings: 5 * Calories: 231 * Fat: 7 g * Carb: 19 g * Cholesterol: 65 mg * Protein: 24 g * Sugar: 7 g * Sodium: 326 mg *  Fiber: 8 g

Vitamins: A (338%), C (29%), Calcium (47%), Iron (16%) based on a 2000 calorie diet

Ingredients:

• 1 eggplant
• 10 oz frozen spinach (thawed)
• 3 carrots
• 1 zucchini (medium)
• 1-2 shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 8 oz 93% lean ground turkey
• 1 egg
• 16 oz nonfat ricotta cheese
• 8 oz - 2 % italian mix shredded cheese blend (mozzarella also works)
• parsley (dried or fresh) (optional)
• pepper

Directions:

Thaw frozen spinach and squeeze all liquid out - using a cheesecloth is an easy way to do this. 

Set the oven to 350 F.

Peel carrots. Finely dice carrots, zucchini, and shallot(s) using a food processor. Finely chop garlic or use a garlic press.

Cook meat, carrots, zucchini, shallots, and garlic in a pan over medium heat.

While meat is cooking, slice eggplant to create long thin slices (to be used as your "noodle" layer). Slices should be thick enough to contain meat and cheese layers - ~1/8 of an inch should suffice. I used a mandolin to do this, but in the absence of one, eggplant is easy to slice by hand. The thickness of the slices is just not as easy to control. The eggplant does not need to be peeled.

As the meat is cooking, stir and chop occasionally to break up the ground meat and allow it to cook thoroughly. Add in parsley: 1-2 tsp for dried parsley, 1/4 cup chopped for fresh. Once the meat is done cooking, turn the heat off and drain any extra liquid.

In a medium size bowl, combine ricotta cheese, egg, spinach (thawed and drained), 2/3 of the italian cheese mix, and pepper (1/2 tsp or to your preference). Stir well until egg yolk is completely broken and the spinach is mixed evenly throughout the mixture.

Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with olive oil - a Misto is great for this, but Pam also works well. 

You will be creating 2 layers for the lasagna, so plan accordingly when you layer meat and cheese. Place 1 layer of eggplant on the dish, as you would noodles. - this should be ~1/3 of your eggplant slices. Make sure all bottom surfaces are covered. Use ~1/2 of the cheese mixture and spoon this onto the eggplant layer. A rubber spatula can be used to help spread the cheese evenly. Spoon cooked meat mixture onto the cheese layer in an even amount throughout the dish - you should use about 1/2 of the meat and vegetable mixture. Place another layer of eggplant on top, again making sure the surface is completely covered with eggplant. Overlap if need be! Repeat the process for the cheese and meat layers.

For the top of your lasagna, place the remaining 1/3 of the eggplant slices on top, covering the entire surface. Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 of the italian cheese mix blend on top.

Place in the oven for ~1 hour. 

After cooking, let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving. Because the recipe does not use noodles, you may notice additional liquid that noodles would have otherwise absorbed. This liquid can be drained out if desired - use pot holders to hold the dish over the sink and slowly tip the dish on one corner facing away from you to drain some of the liquid. If this is done slowly and at a minimum angle, you should have no issues with the food being dislodged in the dish.

Enjoy!