Garden to Table “Healthier” Eggplant parm stacks

Summer is in full swing in the garden! The tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and (my personal favorite) eggplant are all growing beautifully! Last year I tried adding eggplant to my organic garden and was just amazed by how easy it was AND how much I got to harvest!

Now, as a “wanna-be” Italian, I love a good Eggplant Parmigiana! With so much eggplant growing each week I wanted to create a recipe that lightened it up a bit and could fit into my lifestyle, even when I’m trying to be health-ish. This recipe does just that! Here we’ve swapped out breadcrumbs for almond flour, and we’re baking the eggplant instead of frying! Plus if you really want to go full garden-to-table, I’ve mastered my homemade Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce, and will be posting that so soon!

A warning before you start - this recipe does take a bit of time. It’s super easy, but each step takes about 20-30 minutes.

I find this recipe perfect for Sunday Supper, or even an awesome meal prep option! With 6 servings, you can easily divide this into 6 oven-safe containers and stack them right in the fridge until they’re ready to be eaten during the week.

This first step is truly the most important! Don’t skip it!! You need to remove as much of the excess water from your eggplant as you can. Lucky for you, I have a super easy trick that takes minimal effort, but get’s the job done. Simply take a baking sheet, line it with a couple layers of paper towels, add a light dusting of sea salt on the towels, then add your eggplant round in a single layer on top. Add another light dusting of sea salt, cover with a layer of paper towels, and repeat! Do this until all of your eggplant is sandwiched between a salty paper towel (or clean tea towel).

Now you’ll want to weigh them down a bit. I like to take some heavy cookbooks (some of my favorites shown here!) and layer them on top of the top-most paper towels.

Let this sit for at least 20 minutes, longer if you have time. This will help drain any excess water in the eggplant and make it even crispier without needing to fry them.

Once the eggplant is nice and dry you’ll coat in a light egg wash, and then a delicious (and health-ish) almond flour mixture). Of course I neglected to take a photo of this step… but trust me, it’s so easy! Once each eggplant round is coated you’ll place them in a single layer on a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes, flipping half way. No frying needed! These eggplant rounds turn out incredibly delicious each time! They’ve become a weekly staple in my house. Now here comes the fun part:

It’s time to layer all of your amazing, and mostly garden fresh, ingredients to a casserole dish! Here, I’m using my homemade Garden to Table Cherry Tomato Sauce. Start with a layer of sauce in the bottom of the dish, then layer in 6 rounds of eggplant on top of the sauce. Next, you’ll top with some sliced mozzarella (slice your own! Try not to buy the pre-shredded, as easy as it is! It most likely will contain cellulose, and we just don’t need that in our garden to table recipes). On top of the mozzarella, you’ll add a spoonful of your favorite sauce and repeat! With the eggplant that I use, I usually get about 3-4 layers of eggplant per stack. Top with 1 last layer of mozzarella and bake! So easy!

This bubbly goodness is so delicious you’ll never know it’s been lightened up! Ready to give it a try?? Full recipe below!

Let me know what you think!