Oven-Baked Eggplant/Zucchini/Tomato Soup

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.

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.