A Vegetarian Dinner

Tonight was a meat free dinner with some delicious vegetarian options: eggplant pizza and baked broccoli.  Both recipes required the use of the oven, so I started with the eggplant and while it was cooking I prepped the broccoli.  When the eggplant was ready to be taken out of the oven, I put the broccoli in and topped the eggplant slices.  I then turned the oven to broil on high and put the eggplant back in beside the broccoli for about 5 minutes.  When it was ready, I left the broccoli to cook again at 425 for whatever time was left.

Baked Broccoli
This makes a great side dish to any meal and it's really easy to put together.

Ingredients:
1 head of broccoli, washed and cut into pieces
2-4 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to season
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp cheese (Parmesan or Asiago are my favourites), shredded or grated
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 lemon, zest and juice

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Spray a 8x8" baking dish with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, combine the broccoli, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper until the broccoli is coated.  Add the bread crumbs and 2 tbsp cheese; stir again.  Transfer to the baking dish.  Make sure you add all the crumbs in the bowl to the top of the broccoli.  (Easy clean-up option: Combine all the ingredients in a large ziploc bag and give it a shake to coat!)

3. Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes until everything is browned.  Stir the broccoli about half way through cooking if you like.

4. Zest the lemon over the broccoli.  Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the lemon juice over the broccoli as well.  Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese.


Eggplant Pizza
I've been wanting to make this for a long time.  With the ingredients required to make it, you really can't go wrong!  And this portion of our vegetarian dinner is gluten free as well!

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, sliced into 1" thick slices
1 jar/can (213mL) tomato sauce or pizza sauce
1/2 cup mozzarella, grated (this amount varies depending on how cheesy you like our pizza)
15-20 fresh cherry tomatoes, halved (enough so that there's 2-3 halves per slice)
4-5 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
1 tsp sea salt
Asiago or Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

Sprinkle the eggplant slices with salt.
This will help dry them out as they cook.

1. Preheat oven to 425F.  Arrange the sliced eggplant in rows on a baking sheet (or two if you need it).  Sprinkle with salt and bake for 20 minutes.

2. Remove the eggplant from the oven and turn the broiler on.  Spread 1 tbsp sauce over each eggplant, followed by the mozzarella.  Arrange the basil and cherry tomatoes over the cheese.  Grate some Asiago cheese over each slice.

3. Broil for 3-5 minutes.  Keep a close eye to make sure it does not burn.  Serve hot.

Instead of mozzarella, you can use Provolone cheese.  If you buy it already sliced, it makes for an even quicker prep and less clean up.

The cooked eggplant topped and ready to be broiled!

The final product - so delicious!