Gluten Free
Beef Wrapped Roasted Eggplant with Tomato Sauce
Prep
20 minutes
Cook
1 hour 5 minutes
Yield
4
This delicious Roasted Eggplant recipe wraps eggplant with beef to make it a hearty, complete meal. Served with a tomato sauce and yogurt sauce, this dish is to die for and so comforting.
Eggplant definitely is underrated in my opinion. It’s inexpensive and so delicious to cook with and add into recipes. This Roasted Eggplant recipe isn’t just a plain, boring eggplant. This recipe wraps the eggplant in beef and is served with a tomato sauce. It’s a yummy comforting food, and only takes 20 minutes to prep.
❤️ Why You’ll Love Roasted Eggplant
- Healthy: This Roasted Eggplant recipe is packed with protein (from the beef) on top of the nutrients that come with eating eggplant. It’s good-for-you and delicious.
- Quick Prep: Prep this recipe in only 20 minutes and let your oven do the rest of the work. This is a great meal for a Sunday night family dinner.
- Flavorful: This Roasted Eggplant is bursting with flavor with the creamy yogurt sauce, cheesy goodness, and delicious wrapped eggplant.
🍲 Ingredients
Eggplant – Eggplant is so good for you and packed with antioxidants, fiber, and essential vitamins. It’s also rich in anthocyanin which is what gives it that vibrant purple color. This is a super potent antioxidant that helps protect your body from the bad stuff. Try eggplant in recipes like this Greek Stuffed Eggplant or my Jon Ham Sandwich recipe.
Ground Beef – The beef that the eggplant is wrapped in makes this recipe a complete, protein-rich meal. Ground beef helps build and repair tissues, and is full of nutrients like iron, zinc, and B vitamins. If you aren’t into beef, you can also swap the ground beef for another ground meat of your choice.
Greek Yogurt – This Roasted Eggplant recipe has a creamy yogurt sauce that is so yummy. Greek yogurt is loaded with protein, and has healthy gut-healing benefits. It’s a staple ingredient in my house because you can use it in both sweet and savory dishes, and also enjoy it on its own as a healthy snack.
👩🍳 How to Make Roasted Eggplant
Make the yogurt sauce
- Mix together the Greek yogurt, pressed garlic, salt, and olive oil until well combined. Set aside.
Roast the eggplants
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Place eggplants on a parchment-lined baking sheet (leave the stems on!) gently prick each of the eggplants a few times with a knife and when the oven is preheated, roast for 40-45 minutes or until the eggplant has ‘deflated’ and is about half the size. *Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your eggplant*
- When cool enough to handle, gently peel off the skin of the eggplant and leave it on the stem of the eggplant.
Make the ground beef mixture
- In a large bowl mix together the ground beef, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, egg, and grated onion (with the juice squeezed out).
- Once combined, divide the beef mixture into 4 portions.
Assemble the beef-wrapped eggplant
- Once the eggplant has been peeled, preheat oven to 400F (or keep at 400F if your oven is still on).
- Put one portion of the meat on a piece of plastic wrap / cling wrap and use your hands to spread it into a quarter-inch layer. Gently place the eggplant on one side of the meat layer and then sprinkle the top of the eggplant with 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese. Use the cling wrap to help you roll the meat over and around the eggplant, gently sealing the bottom and side – make sure the stem is still sticking out. Repeat with the remaining meat mixture and eggplants.
- Place meat-coated eggplants on a large parchment paper lined baking sheet (use two sheet pans if needed). Then, in a bowl season the potatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper, toss to combine, and then spread around the eggplants on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until eggplant is slightly browned, the beef is cooked through and the cheese might just be starting to ooze out. The potatoes should be just starting to turn golden.If the potatoes need more time, remove the eggplants from the sheet pan and bake the potatoes for 5-10 more minutes.
- While the eggplant is baking, warm the marinara sauce over medium-low heat until warmed through.
- To serve, spread garlic yogurt over the bottom of a large serving dish. Place the baked eggplant on top followed by the potatoes (if using) around the eggplant. Top with the marinara sauce.
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- Score the Eggplant: Making sure to stab the eggplant with a fork or scoring it (in a crosshatch pattern) before putting in the oven makes sure that the eggplant cooks evenly and allows flavors to penetrate deeper.
- Seasoning: Eggplant tastes great when seasonings like garlic, herbs like rosemary or thyme, or a pinch of red pepper flakes are added to it.
- Don’t Overcook: You want to make sure you don’t overcook your eggplant so it doesn’t get mushy. This is why I think a lot of people don’t like eggplant because they’ve only had it overcooked. Keep your eye on it and make sure it’s tender but still holds its shape.
🗒 Variations
If you love this Roasted Eggplant, I have some other delicious eggplant recipes I think you’re going to love:
- Greek Stuffed Eggplant (Papoutsakia)
- Creamy Eggplant Dip
- Greek Panzanella Salad
- Greek Moussaka (or try my Vegan Greek Moussaka)
🗒 Best served with
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Store leftover Roasted Eggplant in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
🤔 Common Questions
While I wouldn’t recommend freezing this recipe as a whole, you can totally freeze just roasted eggplant. Let it cool and then put it in an airtight container or freezer bag in the freezer for up to 3 months.
If you are trying to use up roasted eggplant, you can add it into salads, sandwiches, pasta dishes, or even serve it as a side.
The eggplant should be tender when pierced with a fork. You want to ensure you don’t overcook it or it’ll become mushy.
Yes, you can roast eggplant with the skin on. However, the skin may become slightly tough. If preferred, you can peel the eggplant before roasting.
Beef Wrapped Roasted Eggplant with Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
For the eggplants
- 4 longish medium-large eggplants
- 900 g (2lbs) extra lean ground beef
- 2 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1 egg
- 1 large yellow onion, grated and squeeze out the juices
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 670 ml marinara sauce (we love using Mezzetta marinara sauce)
For the yogurt sauce
- 1 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
- 4 garlic cloves, pressed
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
For the potatoes
- 16-18 baby potatoes, halved
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp ground pepper
Instructions
Make the yogurt sauce
- Mix together the Greek yogurt, pressed garlic, salt and olive oil until well combined. Set aside.
Roast the eggplants
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Place eggplants on a parchment lined baking sheet (leave the stems on!) gently prick each of the eggplants a few times with a knife and when the oven is preheated, roast for 40-45 minutes or until the eggplant has ‘deflated’ and is about half the size. *Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your eggplant*
- When cool enough to handle, gently peel off the skin of the eggplant and leave on the stem of the eggplant.
Make the ground beef mixture
- In a large bowl mix together the ground beef, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, egg and grated onion (with the juiced squeezed out).
- Once combined, divide the beef mixture into 4 portions.
Assemble the beef wrapped eggplant
- Once the eggplant has been peeled, preheat oven to 400F (or keep at 400F if your oven is still on).
- Put one portion of the meat on a piece of plastic wrap / cling wrap and use your hands to spread it into a quarter inch layer. Gently place the egg plant on one side of the meat layer and then sprinkle the top of the egg plant with 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese. Use the cling wrap to help you roll the meat over and around the egg plant, gently sealing the bottom and side – make sure the stem is still sticking out. Repeat with the remaining meat mixture and eggplants.
- Place meat coated eggplants on large parchment paper lined baking sheet (use two sheet pans if needed). Then, in a bowl season the potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper, toss to combine and then spread around the eggplants on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until eggplant is slightly browned, the beef is cooked through and the cheese might just be starting to ooze out. The potatoes should be just starting to turn golden.If the potatoes need more time, remove the eggplants from the sheet pan and baked the potatoes for 5-10 more minutes.
- While the eggplant is baking, warm the marinara sauce over medium-low heat until warmed through.
- To serve, spread garlic yogurt over the bottom of a large serving dish. Place the baked eggplant on top followed by the potatoes (if using) around the eggplant. Top with the marinara sauce.
Notes
- This dish is delicious with potatoes but if you prefer to omit them, you can!
- Serve this eggplant with our Maroulosalata aka my Mama’s Salad on the side.
