Eggplant Lasagna - A Tasty Diabetic Alternative to Pasta

One of the things I miss the most about this ultra-low carb, pre-diabetic diet is pasta. I am a big fan of pasta. It's not that we never have any, and I do use whole wheat or diabetic pastas on occasion, but with the restrictions my mother's doctor has given her it's hard to work it into a meal plan.

This lasagna uses slices of eggplant in place of noodles, and it's really pretty darn fabulous! I'm still tweaking it to make it work exactly how I picture it in my head, but this recipe (with a few adaptations) is the closest I've come thus far.

First, let me point out that this is not my recipe. I based what I did on a recipe I found at Dlife.com. I did make some minor changes to it as written, namely using fresh basil and thyme from my garden. I also used twice as much mozzarella as it called for, mixing half of it with the ricotta. And I made a 9x13 instead of an 8x8 pan, with the intention of freezing it for later meals. I'll report back when I find out if that worked or if you shouldn't freeze this.

One of the things that drew me to this particular recipe was its mixture of fresh and canned ingredients. Granted, I made it in late summer with fresh eggplant from the farmer's market, but this could easily be made year-round with grocery store eggplant.

The recipe doesn't list making the sauce as the first step, but I looked at the bigger picture and realized I didn't want my oven running for that long without doing anything. Not only does it waste electricity, but it's August. I was willing to deal with the heat for a while, but not if I wasn't accomplishing anything by it.

One thing I would recommend doing differently that I did not: The recipe calls for simmering the sauce for 30 minutes. I found it too thin, so I would simmer for at least an hour. Not only will it only get better the longer it simmers, but it will reduce down some. That'll help with the liquid problem later on, I suspect.

For this step, you really need to be good with a knife or use a mandolin. The eggplant wants to be sliced lengthwise in 1/4-inch thick slices. I got... close. Some of them were more like 1/2 inch, and I was using my sharpest ceramic knife. Live and learn... they weren't bad, but I suspect the thicker slices also contributed to the excess liquid in the finished lasagna.

One thing you definitely do not want to skip is baking the eggplant slices before using them! I've made this using raw eggplant, and it came out more like stew. I'm debating sacrificing an increase in carbs to dredge these in an egg wash and then whole wheat flour before baking, to see if that also helps reduce the liquid.

Once your eggplant is baked and your sauce is simmered, it's time to assemble the lasagna. A bit of sauce in the bottom of the pan, then eggplant slices to mostly fill in a single layer, then ricotta cheese. As I mentioned earlier, I mixed a cup of mozzarella in with the cup of ricotta, because I love the combination (and it also holds together better). I didn't spread the ricotta mixture so much as I scattered it around, but it worked well in the finished product.

On top of the ricotta, you add more sauce, then another layer of eggplant. Since I forgot to take a picture of the eggplant slices in the first layer, I took this one of the top layer. The recipe calls for making three layers, but I didn't have enough eggplant to make that work (probably would have if I was better at thin slices, but so be it). Instead, I skipped the middle layer of eggplant slices, so my layers went: sauce, eggplant, ricotta mixture, sauce, ricotta mixture, sauce, eggplant, sauce, cheeses (those last two layers will show in the next picture).

This is the lasagna as it came out of my oven. Notice the excess liquid around the edges. Also, I should have followed my instincts and waited to put the cheese on top until a few minutes before it was done as opposed to before it went in the oven. It's a little brown and dried out. But that's an easy enough fix, and it wasn't burned or inedible, just not as gooey as I prefer cheese to be.

While it may not be the prettiest thing I've ever put on a plate, it was really very tasty. I think the fresh herbs instead of dried made a HUGE difference. I wish my oregano had grown, because that would have made it even better. But if you're a fan of eggplant, and a fan of lasagna, you really can't go very wrong with this. Sure, it's sloppy, but some of the best foods are. And at just 24.5 g of carbs per serving, there really isn't a whole lot of losing involved.

I know I mentioned above, but I wanted to point out again, that I doubled this to make a 9x13-inch pan instead of an 8x8 pan. Also, the recipe said that was four servings, while out of the doubled size I got 10 servings. Nutrition information is for the original recipe without my modifications.

Eggplant Lasagna

Serves 4

1 whole eggplant , halved and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices 

2 tbsp olive oil 

2 medium garlic cloves , minced 

1 small onions , finely chopped 

16 floz tomato sauce, low sodium 

14 floz canned unsalted diced tomatoes , drain 

1/4 tsp hot red pepper flakes 

1/4 tsp oregano leaves 

1/4 tsp dried basil 

1/8 tsp ground thyme 

1/2 cup Cheese, ricotta, partially skim 

1/2 cup part skim shredded mozzarella 

2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese 

Calories: 271.4

Total Carbohydrate: 24.5 g

Dietary Fiber: 6.9 g

Sugars: 14.8 g

Total Fat: 14.3 g

Saturated Fat: 5.4 g

Unsaturated Fat: 8.8 g

Protein: 12.4 g

Sodium: 339.5 mg

Cholesterol: 30.3 mg

And again, in the interest of full disclosure, this is not my recipe (all photos were taken by me). The recipe comes from Dlife.com.