Vegan Stuffed Eggplant with Lentils, Barley + Sundried Tomato Pesto

This easy vegan recipe is perfect for the vegans or vegetarians in your family this fall. This yummy stuffed eggplant recipe is so simple to recreate yourself, and it’s super healthy. Stuffed with lentils, barley, and homemade sundried tomato pesto, this dish would impress even the meat-eaters in your family. 

Why you’ll love this stuffed eggplant:

• It’s easy-to-make
• It’s full of flavor
• It’s packed with protein
• Make it in under an hour
• Perfect main course for the holidays

How do you make stuffed eggplant?

This stuffed eggplant recipe is really easy to recreate without having to be a master chef. However, it’ll taste like you are some sort of chef or food wizard. Here is how you make it:

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1. Preheat the oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
2. Half the 2 eggplants and place then cut side down on the parchment paper. Using a fork, pierce many holes into the eggplant.  Cook for around 30 minutes
3. While the eggplant cooks, prepare the lentil and barley by cooking as instructed on the package.  Strain once cooked and set aside
4. Into a medium-sized pot, plant butter on medium-low heat for 30 seconds before adding in the finely chopped yellow onion. Cook for around 5 minutes or until fragrant. 
5. After 5 minutes of cooking, add in the garlic, stirring to mix. After about 3 minutes, throw in the artichokes, capers, vegetable stock paste, bay leaves, pepper, sundried tomatoes and lemon. Cook for around 5 minutes before adding in the cooked lentils and barley. Simmer for 10 minutes on low heat
6. Remove the eggplant from the oven. Flip them skin-side down and lightly score the eggplant in diagonal cuts. This will make room for the beautiful stuffing you’ve just made. You may also need to handle gently and remove a bit of the eggplant center with a spoon.
7. Simply add those insides to the legume mixture.
8. Using a spoon, stuff eggplant till full and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden and gorgeous
9. Serve with a fresh salad and garlic bread

If you don’t have barley or lentils, you can use any sort of grain here. Wheat berries, quinoa, couscous, chickpeas, etc.

What kind of plant butter should you use?

Finding a great plant butter that’s versatile (you can melt, spread, etc.) can be hard. I like to use Califia Farms Plant Butter. What’s great about this plant butter is that it’s made from REAL food like cashews, tiger nuts (which are super high in fiber), nutritional yeast, avocado oil or olive oil, BUT you get that creamy butter-like taste that melts, spreads, and cooks or bakes well. These products stay clear from palm and canola oils and provide that yummy taste you’ll love with the use of whole foods, versus just fat like regular non-vegan butter. 

Other vegan recipes you’ll love:

• Roasted Acorn Squash
• Creamy Tomato & Garlic Pasta
• Vegan Baked Potato Soup
• Easy Vegan Pot Pies 
• Brown Butter Vegan Meatballs with Creamy Mashed Potatoes

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Stuffed Eggplant

5 from 4 votes

This vegan stuffed eggplant recipe is easy-t0-make and delicious for fall and winter. Stuffed with lentils and barley, it's filling, and flavorful with the punch of homemade pesto.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Course Vegan Meals, Vegan Comfort Food

Cuisine Mediterranean-Inspired

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

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For the Pesto:

• Sundried Tomato Pesto
• 1/2 cup sundried tomatoes
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 1/2 fresh black pepper
• 1 cup fresh basil
• 1/2 cup vegan parmesan cheese

For the stuffed eggplant:

• 2 medium-sized eggplants halved
• 1 cup cooked barley
• 1 cup cooked black lentils
• 2 tbsp. Califia Farms Plant Butter
• 1 large small yellow onion finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves pressed
• 1/2 cup artichokes
• 1/4 carpers
• 1 tsp vegetable stock paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp. sundried tomato pesto
• juice of half a lemon

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Half the 2 eggplants and place then cut side down on the parchment paper.  Using a fork, pierce many holes into the eggplant.  Cook for around 30 minutes.
• While the eggplant cooks, prepare the lentil and barley by cooking as instructed on the package.  Strain once cooked and set aside.
• Into a medium-sized pot, plant butter on medium-low heat for 30 seconds before adding in the finely chopped yellow onion.  Cook for around 5 minutes or until fragrant.  After 5 minutes of cooking, add in the garlic, stirring to mix. After about 3 minutes, throw in the artichokes, capers, vegetable stock paste, bay leaves, pepper, sundried tomatoes and lemon.  Cook for around 5 minutes before adding in the cooked lentils and barley. Simmer for 10 minutes on low heat.
• Remove the eggplant from the oven.  Flip them skin-side down and lightly score the eggplant in diagonal cuts. This will make room for the beautiful stuffing you've just made.  You may also need to handle gently and remove a bit of the eggplant center with a spoon.  Simply add those insides to the legume mixture.
• Using a spoon, stuff eggplant till full and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden and gorgeous.
• Serve with a fresh salad and gorgeous pieces of garlic bread.

Notes

If you do not have Barley or Lentils, you can use any other type of grains or legumes.  Chickpea, quinoa, rice, wheatberries - anything will do!

If you are not a fan of sundried tomatoes, simply use traditional pesto.  Simply remove the sundried tomatoes from the recipe and substitute for pine nuts or even walnuts!

This dish is inherently salty from the parmesan cheese, vegetable stock, capers and artichokes, so I recommend not adding any to this recipe at all.

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