Sunday, July 29, 2007

Homemade Tomato Sauce, Fried Eggplant Casserole

I make homemade tomato sauce about every 2 weeks. I can usually get about 3 meals out of one batch of sauce. My sauce actually freezes wonderfully. My favorite tomato to use for this sauce is canned Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes. I saute sweet onion in olive oil until translucent, then throw in several cloves of garlic. Once the onions and garlic are super soft I add about 1/3 of a bottle of wine (whatever we have in the fridge . . . I have used whites and reds, both great) this time I used a Cabernet Sauvignon. Once the wine cooks down I add the tomatoes, sea salt, black pepper, natural sugar, and the following dried herbs: oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary and marjoram. After everything cooks together for 1-2 hours I blend it all up with my handy immersion blender and throw in tomato paste for richness. This isn't the greatest picture but its tasty!
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To use some of the sauce I made this fried eggplant casserole. The eggplant was soaked in salt water to leach out the bitterness. I made a flour coating out of unbleached white flour, corn meal, corn starch and garlic salt. I also made a "eggy" coating with ground golden flax seed and warm water. I dipped the eggplant in the flour coating, then in the "eggy" mixture, back into the flour mixture and then fried in both olive and canola oil. I also boiled up spaghetti and added some of my sauce to it. There was a layer of fried eggplant on the bottom, then a layer of sauced spaghetti and a final layer of fried eggplant which was topped with sauce and Vegan Gourmet Alternative Mozzarella Cheese. Since everything was cooked it was just baked enough to get it bubbly and the cheeze melted.
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12 comments:

Anonymous said...

LORI!
I had a hankering for eggplant parmesan today, and ordered it at lunch. Long story short, they burnt it! I sent it back and then they burned the second order!! Needless to say, I did not eat it and was quite dissapointed. Your casserole looks so good!
Love, Erin

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

Wish you were here to enjoy it!

Anonymous said...

you know, i don't even like eggplant and i think i would eat this!

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

fried eggplant can't be beat!

Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan! said...

mmmmm, i'll have to try your version soon. looks heavenly!

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