Who else is a sucker for eggplant parmesan? Raise your hands!! oooh, me, me, me! (image of me raising my hand and holding it extra high with my other hand on my arm pit because everyone knows this actually makes your arm longer). Haha, remember how kids used to do that? I know the ANSWER, PICK ME!! I know you’re ignoring me, come on PICK ME TEACHER!
I absolutely love Eggplant Parm but we all know its full of all the bad stuff, like frying and pasta and cheese, blah blah blah. I decided to take all of the amazing flavors from eggplant parm, take out the frying part, take out the pasta part, add a slow cooker part and keep the delicious parts like tomatoes and eggplant and CHEESE. Ok, if you’re really good you can leave the cheese out but I’ve decided that cheese is always going to be a part of my life. I love it and it makes me happy and it actually doesn’t make my body feel weird (I know this happens to some people), so there. I said it. Cheese is here to stay.
This is basically a deconstructed eggplant parmesan. Instead of frying the eggplant in lots of fatty oil and breading, I made my own garlic bread crumbs and finished the eggplant off with a few sprinkles which added a nice crunchy texture. If you haven’t made your own breadcrumbs before, you should do it. So many store-bought bread crumbs have tons of added ingredients that you don’t want to be eating. Simply take some stale bread pieces, process them into crumbs in a food processor and toast them on a baking sheet for about 10-15 minutes in a 300 F oven. Add some salt, garlic powder & call it a day!
Know what I also love about this recipe? It takes like no time to make. Cut it up, throw it all in the slow cooker and you have a delicious dinner ready for you hours later. It makes great leftovers too!
Ok, you may be asking why I’m calling this a stew? I’m calling it a stew because it made me feel better about eating a bowl of eggplant and tomato sauce. A DELICIOUS bowl of eggplant & tomato sauce! It’s a stew. Sound good? Ok, good.
Enjoy!
WHAT WILL MAKE ME HAPPY:
Today I’m asking you to do something that WILL make me happy. I finally got around to creating a facebook page for A Sunshiny Day. I figured I would stop bothering my friends with my daily recipe postings and actually post them to a page where people want to hear it. I’m trying to grow the page so I would absolutely LOVE if you took a second to go like my page.
Just visit the link, click “like” and don’t forget to make sure it shows up in your news feed by hovering over the “like” button and choosing “Show in News Feed.”
Thank you SO much in advance!! Love you guys!
Slow Cooker Eggplant Parmesan Stew
Print recipe
| Serves | 6-8 |
| Allergy | Milk, Wheat |
| Dietary | Vegetarian |
| Meal type | Main Dish |
| Misc | Serve Hot |
Ingredients
Eggplant Stew
- 1 large eggplant (cut into cubes)
- 1 small onion (roughly chopped)
- 28oz crushed tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 8oz low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Toppings
- 3/4 cups bread crumbs
- 1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
- fresh mozzarella
- fresh basil
Directions
| 1. | Combine all of the ingredients together in the slow cooker and stir well to combine. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours. |
| 2. | Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add bread crumbs and parmesan cheese and cook for a few minutes until toasted (stirring often). |
| 3. | Distribute stew to individual (oven-safe) bowls, top with a few slices of fresh mozzarella cheese and place under the broiler to melt the cheese. Top the bowls with bread crumbs and basil leaves right before serving. |
Yum! I’ve marked this to make later. Question: do you find you need to salt the eggplant (let it sit, and then rinse/dry) before making this dish? Or is it fine to just chop it up and throw it in the crockpot?
Hi Zenzi, I thought about the same thing but I decided not to salt it and it came out great. If you were frying it, it might be good to do because the salt draws out the moisture but in the stew, a little extra moisture helps. Hope you enjoy!
I just made it today, and it kind of had a metallic flavor. I’m not sure if it was because of the brand of tomatoes I used or what.
Hi Kate, That’s so strange! It’s possible if the tomatoes were in the can for too long, they could have picked up the metallic taste from the can, my favorite to use are San Marzano tomatoes, they always add a really great flavor. It is also possible that the eggplant you used was extra bitter for some reason? Sorry about that – it shouldn’t have any sort of metallic flavor, better luck next time!
Do you peel the eggplant?
I did not, you can if you’d like though! I thought it added a nice texture.