If you love marinara sauce like me but not crazy about pasta or eat a gluten free diet, then you will love my eggplant noodle recipe. Thanks to the Tone It Up diet plan, I’ve learned that it’s easier for me to maintain my weight when I eat my carbs during the day rather than at night. I saw this way of preparing eggplant on The View 3 years ago and have been using it to make my favorite Italian pasta dinners but with eggplant instead of pasta ever since. It takes a little bit of prep time so it’s not on my weekly menu but boy is it good!
To start, all you need is an eggplant and salt. First peel the eggplant. Leave about an inch of skin on the top and bottom. Slice the eggplant the long way into thin 1-4-1/2 inch thick slabs. The thinner the slices, the shorter the time it will take. Next, salt the top of each slice well and let sit on a cooling rack for 15 minutes. Flip, sprinkle again with salt and wait another 15 minutes.
You will notice water will begin to seep out of the eggplant. After you’ve waited, rinse off salt under cool running water and squeeze out any excess liquid. Place on a paper towel and pat dry. You will notice that the eggplant has hopefully lost it’s firmness and noodle like. If not, don’t worry, it will get there the rest of the way in your pan. Slice the eggplant now, into 1/4 inch wide strips so that they look like pasta noodles, as seen below.
Preheat a frying pan on medium-high heat. Add a little extra virgin olive oil. I like to add garlic as well but depending on the recipe, you may not want to. I added a few slices sun dried tomatoes to the recipe seen in the pictures. Sauteed eggplant until the noodles have completely lost their firmness. They should appear to look like noodles at this point. Add in your favorite pasta sauce. Mine is the Roasted Vegetable Whole 360 from Whole Foods.
You can also add garlic and basil with toasted walnuts and parmesan cheese. That is my other favorite. I use the frozen herb cubes you can buy at most grocery stores. Just pop in two basil and one garlic.
Feel free to add ground turkey, veggie meatballs, ricotta or other protein to complete this dish as a dinner. I like to add a little parmesan cheese too!
I usually am too impatient to let the noodles wilt completely on their own before transferring them to the frying pan but they always turn out just fine. Make sure you thoroughly wash off the salt too or else you will be in for a big surprise when you take a bit! The past few times I have made the recipe, I haven’t washed the salt off completely. I think the seeds to be scraped out to really get it out.
For more gluten free pasta substitutions, check out the active Udi’s community. If your child or friend has an allergy to gluten or you just prefer to eat without it, this is a great resource. From dinner party menu planning to restaurants with the best menu, you’ll find recipes, support and creative ideas.
The nutrition info will vary based on your sauce and recipe. Since this is just for the eggplant, the calories are very low. You can basically eat an entire eggplant 100-150 calories. Not bad!
Have you ever made eggplant noodles before?
