This is obviously not a pizza, but I like calling it Crustless Eggplant Pizza since it makes me think of small pizzas, but much healthier.

Anyhow, you create killer lemonade when life hands you lemons. In this instance, I prepared a great crustless eggplant pizza using organic, locally produced eggplants that I purchased and beautiful tomatoes that I was given.

Oh goodness, I adore them! I use them for lasagna, sauces, and a variety of other recipes. Well, I think they taste a lot like mushrooms.

It tastes really amazing when you dip bread in my sautéed eggplant and onion mixture with cream.

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My kid enjoys this and has nearly the same eating preferences as I do. But neither of my boys wants to even approach it.

They won’t eat it unless I use the marinara sauce in place of the raw tomatoes and slice the eggplant thinly lengthwise; then I bake it longer so the eggplant could become a little bit crunchy.

Therefore, the approach could work if you have a fussy eater who dislikes tomatoes or eggplant.

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I adore tomatoes from my own garden. I’ve stated it before, but I munch on tomatoes all day long if they are cherry tomatoes, and I eat regular-sized tomatoes like an apple.

When compared to store-bought versions, it is incredibly different, refreshing, sweet, and juicy. I find the scent of them alone to be quite delightful.

My tomatoes have only just begun to turn red, and I just picked a few last weeks, but my great neighbors usually generously share with us tons of their tomatoes, which I use practically daily to make beautiful dishes if they aren’t cut for the salad.

Anyhow, tonight we had a fantastic pizza made with eggplant. I served it with Italian sausages on the side and whole grain French baguette. 

These are basic, but depending on what I have on hand, I also like to add toasted panko or Italian bread crumbs. I’ll share the data from the notes with you.

This is really such a quick meal, even if you serve it without any type of meat it is satisfying. Be creative and like I said if you like marinara/pasta sauce use that instead of the tomatoes.

You can also add other things, like minced mushrooms, ham, an egg, which I didn’t try before, but as I write that just came to my mind. I think fried sunny side up egg on the tower of this would be awesome.

Anyway, if you decide to make Crustless Eggplant Pizza do not forget to tag me on social media. You can find me on Instagram most of the time so use tag @sandraseasycooking with the same hashtag #sandraseasycooking. If you are private you can DM me a pic.

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Yield: Serves 4

Crustless Eggplant Pizza

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Easy and tasty Vegetarian Crustless Eggplant Pizza

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 22 minutes

Total Time 37 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 large Eggplant, or two medium sizes
• 1 tablespoon (14g) Salt
• 1 Large Tomato or two medium sizes; Beefsteak tomatoes work very well.
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon Italian Herbs Mix
• 8 Mozzarella slices, thicker
• Fresh Basil Leaves or a sprinkle of dried basil
• 2 tablespoons Olive oil

Instructions

1. Wash then cuts the thicker part of the eggplant into approximately 1/2-inch (1 cm) slices; maybe just a little thinner. Add water into a large bowl and add salt. Soak eggplant slices in that water for 10 minutes.
2. While eggplant is soaking, wash and slice tomatoes into thin slices (1/4 inch approximately) 
3. Take eggplant slices out of the water and place them on a clean, dry paper towel or cotton kitchen towel. While you are taking them out of the water try to squeeze water out without breaking a slice, then place on a dry towel; Pat dry eggplant slices so you take out as much moisture as possible.
4. Preheat oven on 400F (200C /gas moderate hot)
5. Season eggplants with sea salt, black pepper, sprinkle or two of garlic powder, Italian herb mix, and a drizzle of olive oil; Toss to coat.
6. Add a bit of oil to your baking pan then place each slice of eggplant to bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes then turn it around and cook for additional 5 minutes or until the eggplant slices are tender, and almost cooked through.
7. Slice tomatoes as thick as you want, pat dry with paper towels, then place on top of the cooked eggplant slices, add cheese on top of each.
8. Turn the oven to broiler at 450 to 500 Fahrenheit, so the top oven heat could melt the cheese. Keep it in for about 2 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted and bubbly.

Notes

I like keeping it j tad longer to get that brown edge and a bit of golden brown cheese. It takes approximately 4 minutes but keep an eye on it closely if you like it just the way I do.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 310Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 45mgSodium: 363mgCarbohydrates: 21gFiber: 6gSugar: 9gProtein: 15g

This data was provided and calculated by Nutritionix. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate, but we try our best.

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The other night I was too tired to stand and cook a large dinner. I had to feed some hungry people that get pretty grumpy if their stomachs start to grumble. In other words, these Japanese Omelette Parcels were made pretty fast.

Therefore, I cooked the rice, then added some shiitake mushrooms and made an omelet. Which, of course, I sliced into thin strips and mixed with the rice.

Furthermore, my family loves when I put on the table varieties of veggies and meat every time I make rice bowls for dinner.

Everything cooked is usually leftovers from the nights before. It was less cooking for me, and dinner gets in front of my family much faster. I added a bit of sesame oil with soy sauce in my rice bowl and kimchi on top.

Above all, it was undoubtedly delicious. However, I had some of that mixed rice leftovers and then these quick Japanese Omelette Parcels came to my mind.

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It was a simple and delicious lunch the next day. All I had to do was to make a thin Japanese omelet (Usuyaki Tamago).

Since I was not able to make a trip to the Asian market, instead of kampyo, more traditional way to tie these parcels, I used chives.

I served with two kinds of dips; soy sauce, which is pretty basic and wasabi sake Dijon mustard, by the way really delicious and unique.

Kampyo: Long, beige, ribbon-like strips of gourd that are dried and used as edible ties for various Japanese food packets, filling for rolled sushi etc. A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae.

The gourd is occasionally used to describe crops like pumpkins, cucumbers, squash etc.

However, you will find it mostly sold in Japanese food markets dried that needs to be prepared by simmering before using. This is called Fukusa Sushi or Zushi.

What is Fukusa?

A Fukusa is a small handkerchief used in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. It is folded in different ways as part of the ceremonial performance.

I hope you will give this a try next time you have some leftover rice or you can make sushi rice.

Also, this could be a wonderful addition to your lunch box so you can take it to school or work. I had a few people over for lunch that day and everybody enjoyed it very much.

Note that these are usually stuffed with prepared sushi rice (rice vinegar, sugar, salt). I used steamed rice with a bit of sesame oil and soy sauce to season and taste.

Yield: 4 SERVINGS

Japanese Omelette Parcels

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Easy and delicious Japanese Omelette Parcels , also known as Fuksa Zushi

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Additional Time to make rice 10 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups short grain, cooked rice
• 1 tsp. Sesame Oil
• 1 tsp. Soy sauce
• 6 Fresh Shiitake Mushrooms, stir fry and season with a drizzle of soy sauce
• 2 Tbs. Sesame seeds
• 6 Thin Japanese omelets, recipe in the notes
• 6 Chives or scallions, green part, seasoned kampyo may be used if any

Instructions

1. Mix cooked rice with sesame oil and soy sauce (you can make sushi rice and skip sesame oil and soy sauce), then add sliced and stir-fried shiitake mushrooms and toasted sesame seeds, stir to combine. In the mixture, you will add later thin strips of omelet from cutout omelet leftovers. 
2. Make omelets and place on a clean surface of your cutting board. Cut the edges into squares, roughly 8x8in. note*cut leftover omelet into thin strips and add to the rice mixture. 
3. Spoon about 1 1/2 -2 Tbs. Rice mixture into omelet square. 
4. Position the omelet so that one corner faces you. Fold this lower corner over the filling to meet the top corner, then one after the other, fold in the side corners to meet at the center. 
5. Now fold the omelet over the top corner to form a rectangular parcel. 
6. Use the chives to tie around the omelet parcel. 

Notes

Thin Japanese Omelette Recipe (Usuyaki tamago)

Makes 3-4 

Ingredients:

1 tsp. Cornstarch

2 large eggs

1 egg yolk 

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 Tbs. Vegetable oil

Directions:

Dissolve the cornstarch in 1 tablespoon of water. 

Mix the eggs and combine it with dissolved cornstarch. 

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat, wipe the excess oil with a paper towel then pour in enough eggs to thinly coat the bottom of your pan. 

Flip with your spatula or chopstick if you are an expert and do not let it burn. Eggs/omelet needs to be beautiful bright yellow in color without burning. Continue with making the rest of the omelets to use up the rest of the mixed eggs. 

If you poured correctly, this mixture could make up to 4 omelets in a medium-sized pan, but 3 would be perfect too. 

Note*

Without ruining the traditional food I would like to suggest wonderful additions that could be added in these parcels with the rice, such as sauteed peas, or steamed fish, glazed carrots etc. 

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With Parmesan-Garlic Croutons Recipe.

Is there anything better in the Fall time than wrapping your hands around a nice bowl of soup, especially with freshly made crunchy Parmesan garlic baked croutons?

I love this time of the year just because of that reason. Unfortunately, other than falling leaves and a few days of rain there is not much of Autumn weather around here. The nights are cozy and crisp and perfect for this kind of soup.

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So, this season as well as upcoming winter, I will share a handful of delicious soup recipes. Are you with me on that one?

For this Tomato Soup, I had more than a few taste testers, and everybody had a chance to try and tell me their own opinions.

My kids tried it and my Anna loved it. However, my boys are running far away from even tasting it. They just do not like tomatoes at all.

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However the majority of my taste testers really loved it, so I am sharing this simple homemade recipe with all of you.

If you ask me, I love tomatoes and could eat organic from my neighbor’s garden like an apple.

I absolutely love my neighbor’s tomatoes and I only wish that next summer mine come out like from his garden.

The only tomatoes that I don’t like are when it’s cooked and you leave it chunky.

There is no way that I would eat it, that goes for onions, too. I really love eating it, but I can’t stand seeing floating in my soup or stew.

Yield: Serves 4

Roasted Tomato Soup

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Easy and tasty Roasted Tomato Soup with Parmesan-Garlic Croutons recipe or you may use my recipe for GF Potato Savory Waffles.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Roasting Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 lbs Roma Tomatoes halved/stem and ends removed
• 1 medium onion peeled/halved
• 5 garlic cloves peeled
• 2 Tbs. Olive Oil
• Salt and Ground Black Pepper to taste
• 2 Sprigs Rosemary fresh
• 1 Sprigs Thyme fresh
• 4 cups Vegetable stock/or chicken
• 1/2 Cup Tomato Sauce/no sodium
• 1 tbsp. Tomato paste
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Parmesan-Garlic Croutons:
• 2 cups Whole Wheat toast/bread cubed
• 2 Tbs. Olive oil
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
• 1/4 tsp. Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• 2 Tbs. Parmesan Cheese Or vegan Parmesan-style Cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit. On a large baking sheet, toss halved tomatoes, halved onion, garlic, fresh herbs and season with salt and pepper, drizzle olive oil. Spread the vegetables evenly and into a single layer, putting tomatoes cut side up. Roast them for about 40 minutes in preheated oven, or until everything is soft.
2. To make croutons, reduce the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and toss the cubed bread on the baking pan/sheet, seasoning it with olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Bake for about 20 minutes, take out, sprinkle with the cheese, return in the oven and bake for next 5 minutes.
3. Finish the soup while croutons are baking. In several batches in a blender, food processor, or use hand blender; puree the vegetables adding stock little bits at the time. Put the pureed vegetables in the large saucepan and bring to boil over high heat.
4. Add Tomato Sauce and tomato paste, season to taste with salt and pepper and turn down the heat on low. Simmer for 15 minutes with occasional stirring.
5. Serve hot and garnish with croutons and perhaps some more herbs or chopped scallions.

Notes

I believe any tomatoes would do for this soup, and the juicier the better-my opinion! Toast bread for croutons or sour bread, cubed would work perfectly too.

Tomato paste and tomato puree are two different things. Tomato purée is a thick liquid made by cooking and straining tomatoes. The difference between tomato paste, tomato purée, and tomato sauce is consistency; tomato puree has a thicker consistency and a deeper flavour than sauce. The definitions of tomato purée vary from country to country.

Besides these amazing Croutons, you may serve this soup with my easy and tasty savoury potato waffles. They go so well with soups like this one.

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