Want to lower your meat consumption or calories without forsaking taste? Try this tasty and rich vegan version of stuffed aubergines - a Turkish Classic.
In a bowl add the vegan mince, 1 chopped onion, 3 chopped tomatoes, parsley, coriander, dried mint, 3 tsp salt, 2 tsp pepper, 1/2 lemon squeezed and 50g tomato puree and mix well.
Wash the aubergines and trim the stork area. You can leave it on to cook and it’s edible but I like to tidy up around it a bit.
Vertically peel 2cm stripes into the skin all the way around and then cut them evenly down the middle (vertically).
Using a smaller knife, carefully cut around a 1cm boarder from the edge of each half and keep slicing into the middle from the sides until the center comes out. Try to take it out in one tidy piece and leave them to one side.
Cut the top off the 4 red peppers and remove all seeds. Cut around the stork from the lid and remove.
Cut the top off 4 tomatoes and carve out the insides. I like to squeeze the meaty inside part to remove as much water as possible and chop them up and mix into the stuffing. Cut around the stork from the lid and remove.
Tightly arrange all of the veg in a deep oven pan. Unless you have a huge oven you’ll probably have to split it between two pans (I do!).
Fill all of your veg with stuffing one by one and place them back into the pan.
Put the lids back onto the tomatoes and red peppers and place the part you cut out of the aubergines upside down on top of them like a hat.
Spray all of the vegetables with about 40 sprays of 1 cal spray oil and evenly cover everything with 2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and the juice of half a lemon.
Mix 250g tomato purée with the hot water and pour it around the edges and a bit over the top of the veggies too.
Slice two tomatoes and an onion into rings and cover the whole dish in them. These will give a huge amount of flavour, protect the vegetables below and also taste great when they’re a bit burned!
Cover the pan with foil and cook in the oven for 1.5 hours.
Remove the foil from the top, spoon some of the juice over the vegetables and then cook uncovered for another 30-40 minutes or until the juice has reduced to a nice thick consistency and the tomatoes and onions on top have browned and burned a bit.
Notes
NUTRITIONAL VALUES (per serving)Calories: 370Protein: 21.4gCarbohydrate: 65g (of which 40g sugars)Fat: 4.5g (of which 0.4g saturates)Fibre: 28g