I love eggplants because they’re so versatile. Of all the eggplant dishes, eggplant parm is without question my favorite! There’s just something so satisfying with how the eggplant, tomato sauce and cheese melt in my mouth.

I wasn’t sure how we could make this eggplant parm casserole without eggs until I tried mixing vital wheat gluten with flax milk. The batter is close in texture to the traditional egg-and-flour batter. As a cheese substitute, I used Trader Joe’s Vegan Almond Cheese Mozzarella Style Shreds. I couldn’t tell the difference!

Although traditional eggplant parm recipes require the eggplant to be fried before baking, I decided to skip that step because fried eggplant soaks up a lot of oil from frying. Although olive oil is great, I wanted to limit the calories in this dish for those trying to manage their weight.

Peeling the eggplant for this recipe is optional. I like leaving the skin on because eggplant skin contains a lot of great nutrients–a potent antioxidant that protects our cell membranes from damage, and phytonutrients that improve blood circulation and nourish the brain.

I paired the eggplant with zucchini because not only is zucchini low in calories, it’s also high in fiber and water content. The fiber and water content not only makes our stomach feel full longer, it also helps me during the cooking process. Since I skipped the eggplant frying, the water from the zucchini helps soften the eggplant as it cooks in the oven with the tomato sauce. This gets us that melt-in-my-mouth moment without the extra calories!

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we enjoyed eating it!

Eggplant Zucchini Tomato Casserole

• Yield: 4 servings
• Preparation: 20 minutes
• Cooking: 50 minutes
• Total: 1 hour 10 minutes
• Diets: Vegan Vegetarian

Ingredients

• Almond Cheese: 2 cups, mozarella shreds
• Breadcrumbs: 1/2 cup
• Eggplant: 1 large
• Flax Milk: 3/4 cup
• Italian Seasoning: to taste
• Olive Oil: 2 tbsp
• Pepper: to taste
• Salt: to taste
• Tomato Sauce: 4 cups, thick sauce
• Vital Wheat Gluten: 1/3 cup
• Zucchini: 2 large

Instructions

1. Coat a 9-inch square baking pan with olive oil. Layer around ¹⁄₄ cup of tomato sauce on top of olive oil.

   

2. Slice eggplant into thin strips.

   

3. Whisk vital wheat gluten, salt, pepper, italian seasoning, and flax milk together to form a batter. Coat the eggplant strips.

   

4. Place eggplant strips coated with batter on the baking pan. Sprinkle 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs.

   

5. Spread a generous amount of tomato sauce and almond mozarella cheese on top of eggplant.

   

6. Slice zucchini into thin strips like the eggplant.

   

7. Coat zucchini with the batter and then sprinkle 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs followed by a generous amount of tomato sauce and almond mozarella cheese.

8. Repeat the process one more time. There should be four alternating layers of eggplant and zucchini: 2 layers of zucchini and 2 of eggplant. Each layer gets 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs and coated with tomato sauce and almond cheese.

   

9. Bake at 450 degrees for 50 minutes or until all layers are soft. Poke with a knife or fork to see if the casserole is soft/done.

   

Remember to tag #ourbeetlife if you try this recipe!

Disclaimer - This is not a sponsored post. We are not affiliated with any products or brands shown or mentioned in this post and we did not receive any compensation for writing this post at the time of writing.