Whether vegan, vegetarian or with a hearty meat filling – the aubergine is simply a real all-rounder. Eggplants filled with minced meat are a classic that is not only popular in oriental cuisine. Today we fill the aubergine with minced lamb and cheese sauce, refine it with a crispy topping made of grated pecorino cheese and bed the stuffed vegetables on a layer of velvety mashed potatoes.
Servings: 4th
Preparation time: 60 min
Cooking time: 25 min
Difficulty level: light
For this you need:
- 4 large eggplants
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 400 g minced lamb
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- 2 tbsp chopped mint
- 1 tbsp chopped oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 100 ml red wine
- 400 g chopped canned tomatoes
For the cheese sauce:
- 60 g butter
- 75 g flour
- 400 ml whole milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 100 g grated pecorino cheese
For the mashed potatoes:
- 400 g floury potatoes
- 100 ml cream
- 75 g butter
- nutmeg
- salt
That is how it goes:
1. First you prepare the mashed potatoes. Peel the potatoes and cook them in salted water until they are soft. Then pour off the water and squeeze the still hot potatoes through a potato press. Boil the cream and pour it over the potato mixture. Dice butter and add it to the potatoes as well. Mix everything together well and season the puree with salt and nutmeg. Set the mashed potatoes aside for now.
2. Cut off both ends of the eggplant. Place the fruit bodies upright on a board and hollow them out with a ball cutter. Brush the eggplant with olive oil on both the inside and outside. Then set them aside for now.
3. Fry the minced lamb in a pan with olive oil. Add finely chopped onions and garlic and sauté both briefly. Then add paprika powder, cinnamon, mint, salt, pepper and tomato paste. Deglaze everything with red wine and let the wine reduce briefly. Finally, add the chopped tomatoes to the pan. Let everything simmer for about 15 minutes.
4. Now prepare the cheese sauce. Melt butter in a saucepan and add flour. Pour in milk and bring everything to a boil. At the end, stir in the cheese and add salt to the sauce.
5. Now comes the assembly. Fill the aubergines with the minced meat and add a tablespoon of cheese sauce on top. For the crispy topping, mix panko flour with grated pecorino cheese, parsley and olive oil. Add a tablespoon of the mixture to each filled eggplant.
6. Pour the mashed potatoes into a baking dish and place the filled eggplants inside. Put the mold in the oven at 175 ° C top and bottom heat for 25 minutes.
Serve the eggplant with chopped parsley. Stuffed eggplants just never get boring, because the filling can be designed in a variety of ways. Today with minced lamb, tomorrow with feta and the day after tomorrow maybe with rice? A vegetable all-rounder.
Those who love eggplants also love moussaka. Here you can find a recipe for baked moussaka.
