Wizzley

Oven-Baked Eggplant/Zucchini/Tomato Soup

by Mira

An easy way to whip up something nourishing and healthy using only a few ingredients: an eggplant, two zucchinis, two cans of chopped tomatoes, olive oil, and mozzarella.

I read on Yahoo these days that Jada Pinkett Smith considers herself lucky her West Indian grandmother didn’t know how to cook. At 41, Jada looks better than ever and feels that way, too. She says the secret to staying slim and in shape is to exercise and, imagine this, not to eat for pleasure.

She must be a tough cookie, not to eat for pleasure. Still, there are some satisfying dishes which don’t exactly offer pleasure but do work with you to stay healthy and even lose weight. Here’s one of them, extremely easy to make.

Ingredients and Instructions

Ingredients and Instructions

Prep time 15 min  -  Total time 55 min
Ingredients for 6 servings
1 eggplant  • 2 zucchinis  • 2 cans of chopped tomatoes, preferably with garlic  • semihard mozzarella (200 grams / 7 oz)  • olive oil (3 tablespoons)
Instructions

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees C / 425 degrees F.
2. Dice eggplant and zucchinis. Place in a baking dish. (I used a vitro-ceramic one.) Add the chopped tomatoes and about 3 tablespoons of olive oil and give the whole mix a swirl with a spoon.
3. Slice the mozzarella and lay the slices on top of the vegetable mix, so that it covers it almost completely. Not completely, but almost, so that some of the water, not much, can, in fact, evaporate.
4. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Recipe:   5.0/5 Stars (1 Votes)

Tip(s) when Cooking Eggplant

How to Get Rid of Bitterness in Eggplant

Many people slice the eggplant, salt the slices heavily, leave them to drain, and then squeeze them before dicing them, to get rid of the bitter juices. Some chefs, however, say that if the eggplant is bitter, no amount of salting and squeezing will make it right. Nevertheless, it has become common among cooks to take this precautionary measure.

While I take my chances sometimes and don't salt the eggplant before dicing it, I have to say that I have encountered bitter eggplants and wished I had done the extra step. My mother swears by it, and I have to say I never tasted a bitter eggplant in her dishes. It might be from the salting, but it might also be from another thing she does after that, which is blanching the eggplant for 5 minutes (tip from a chef, she says, and indeed, I have read that blanching, too, can get rid of the bitterness in eggplant).

So you may wish to include these 2 steps in the recipe presented above.

What You'll Get

You’ll get a kind of soup under the mozzarella. The vegetables will still be firm. Remember, the more you cook them, the more vitamins you lose. Also remember that the mozzarella on top makes for a steaming effect – hence the vegetables preserve more of their health benefits.

Enjoy! You’ll end up with quite a few portions, and, while I can’t vouch how this healthy potion will work for you, I can tell you that in the course of eating this dish and others like it (more to come on this Web site), I lost weight.

Well, in case you're wondering, I ate this dish between more consistent meals of pasta with tomatoes/tuna/olive oil, and freshly blended grapefruit and oranges. Grapefruit helps you lower your bad cholesterol, and lose weight.

I found that the lack of sodium and spices was very refreshing, and the eggplant and zucchini, while on the bland side, still appetizing. Also, the little bit of mozzarella and the olive oil gives you enough fat to keep you satisfied, so a bowl of this oven-baked vegetable mix will do nicely as one complete small meal.

See Some of My Other Easy Recipes

This creamy soup can be made in no time, and with frozen ingredients at that. Still, I recommend using fresh carrots, celery root, and dill. You’ll get a tasty and healthy soup.
This is a super easy and fail-proof way to bake fish, and the result, paired with the garlic sauce I give in this recipe, is absolutely incredible. A sure-fire way to relish fish.
Say you think you can’t cook, but you want to make something special. Here’s a very tasty recipe for cooking newbies. Easy to make mistake-free. Pictures included.
This tasty chocolate dessert is easy to make. It’s done in less than an hour and requires only a few ingredients: dark chocolate, butter, eggs, sugar, peaches, and whipped cream.
Mango is a flavorful fruit, but you can enjoy its taste even more if you mix it with other flavorsome fruit like strawberry and banana, and honey, whipped cream, and coconut milk.

Remember to Exercise

We tend to think exercise is something so complicated that we don't have the energy for it. We also assume that efficient workouts need to take hours, and conclude we don't have the time for them. Well, in fact 30 minutes of walking a day and 20-30 minutes of exercise before we start the day are enough to keep us energized, healthy, and certain 20-minute (well, better make it 30 minutes, since you need to warm up and cool down as well) workouts even help us lose weight.

Pilates is a great way to exercise. I'm recommending here a few DVDs and a book. Take your pick. They're all great ways to get you started on Pilates.

Pilates Weight Loss for Beginners (DVD)
Element: Pilates Weight Loss for Beginners
$14.98  $4.92
A Pilates Book by Brooke Siler, Who Trained with a Protégé of Joseph Pilates
The Pilates Body: The Ultimate At-Home Guide to Strengthe...
$18.95  $3.93
Mira, on 08/02/2012
 
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Mira on 12/07/2012

Thank you, Sue!

2uesday on 12/07/2012

Thanks for reminding me, I might have forgot to do that. I have used that method in the past when I made moussaka from a recipe. I did not know why you did it, I thought it might be to remove some of the moisture from them. BTW In case anyone is wondering here in the UK eggplants are sold by the name of aubergines and zucchinis - courgettes. I think zucchini is the prettier name.

Mira on 12/07/2012

Hi Sue, and thanks for visiting. One thing if you make this recipe: do keep slices of eggplant with salt for 30 minutes, and then squeeze them of their juices before you dice them. I should have put that in there but I don't always do it. One theory is that if they happen to be bitter, doing that won't help. But my mother does it all the time and their eggplant dishes are fine.

2uesday on 12/07/2012

Now the weather has turned cold here I am looking for hot comforting meals so this recipe will be tried out soon.

Mira on 12/03/2012

Thank you so much, Hollie! :)

HollieT on 12/03/2012

Oh my, this is another tempting dish. I'm a vegetarian so these meals are really appealing to me. Out of habit I probably would add some onion, but again, Mira, your dishes are really appealing. :)

Mira on 09/06/2012

Hi sheilamarie, that's great advice, especially as I love garlic, onions, basil, and oregano. It's just that sometimes I go for herbs and strong flavors, and sometimes I want to taste just the vegetables. And then there are days when I simply can't find the herbs I want for a recipe :-); sometimes I postpone the dish, and other times I cook without them and see what I get . . . Many times the recipe won't work at all without spices; in this case, the canned tomatoes had garlic. But to return to your comment, some onion and some basil would make it guest material :-). Thanks so much for your comment!

sheilamarie on 09/04/2012

I actually really love zucchini and eggplant baked with tomatoes and cheese like that. Add lots of garlic and onions if you find it too bland. Herbs such as basil and oregano will perk it up, too. I love it!

Mira on 09/04/2012

Hi corrjo and tolovaj, it's not a fancy recipe, so it wouldn't impress guests through great texture and mix of flavors, but it's satisfying nevertheless, because the tomatoes are tasty and refreshing, and lend a bit of their taste to the more bland zucchini and eggplant as well, and then that mozzarella gives it a bit of a salty edge. The mozzarella will be like a crust on top of the soup; I cut it in small patches with a knife before serving.

corrjo on 09/02/2012

Hmmm...looks delicious. I will have to try it sometime soon when I have my family visiting. It looks like it would be a hit among both kids and adults.


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