Quinoa stuffed eggplant with quinoa-nut crumble and topped with a mint yogurt sauce is a simple healthy dish and favorite summer weeknight meal. Naturally gluten-free, it is full of goodness and flavor.
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Eggplants are my little obsession and I’m so excited to have them back in season! This wonderful summer vegetable has a serious Mediterranean kick that takes you right to the Southern parts of Europe and Middle Eastern countries. We like them grilled or roasted in the oven with some olive oil for most of the time, but really there are endless ways to prepare it. Oh, and I’m falling for its great meat-alike, chewy texture, that makes it perfect for plant-based diets.
So today, we are going to make these stuffed eggplants with quinoa, walnuts and mushrooms, served with a creamy and refreshing mint-yogurt. It’s a very simple dish to put together, uses just a handful of ingredients and makes a wonderful wholesome nourishing 30-minutes dinner if you ask me.
How to roast eggplants?
This is the number 1 step of the recipe and you don’t want to mess it up. There is no way you want under-baked or on the opposite burned eggplants. Instead, you are looking for perfectly soft and tender eggplant texture that melts in your mouth. Any eggplant variety would do, but I have a slightly preference for baby or Italian eggplant.
First, slice eggplant in half, lengthwise, and keep the stems on. This might sound like a detail but it will help the eggplants to keep their shape while roasting.
Then, score score the flesh in a diamond cross-hatch pattern, making sure you don’t cut all the way through the bottom. Again, it matters that the eggplant holds its shape.
Olive oil is key! Now brush generously with olive oil, stretching the cross pattern a little bit to make sure olive oil spreads evenly. Don’t forget to season with salt or your eggplant will be tasteless. I also like to add some freshly ground pepper too.
Place each slice, cut side down to a baking sheet, and roast at high temperature until tender all the way through. I recommend at least 30 minutes, but it can vary from one oven to another, so make sure the flesh is soft before removing from the oven. Now, it’s time to prepare the quinoa stuffing!
Master the quinoa stuffing recipe (it’s gluten-free!)
For this quinoa stuffing recipe, I took inspiration from my vegan lentil-walnut bolognese – which, if you haven’t tried it yet, is beyond amazing! I replaced lentils with quinoa here, but I kept the mushroom-walnuts combination in replacement of minced meat. Side note: you could pretty much use either one or the other stuffing option for your eggplants.
Quinoa is a pretty versatile ingredient that always works beautifully for all kind of stuffing. Because I was looking for this meat-alike texture, I pulsed both mushrooms and walnuts to a food processor, and combined them with quinoa. I added some seasoning and tomato paste, that could be replaced with tomato sauce.
Also, feel free to add more vegetables to your stuffing if you would like to. Diced tomatoes, onions, grated zucchinis… The possibilities are endless. Just adapt the recipe based on the ingredients you have at home, add a little bit more sauce or water if to dry, and tasting there and there to adjust the seasoning as needed.
Oh but wait, there’s also the sauce!
I prepared a very basic mint yogurt sauce to pair the quinoa-nut stuffed eggplants. Use Greek yogurt for a thick, creamy texture, add a few tablespoons of olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and stir.
Instead of fresh mint, you could also use fresh basil or fresh cilantro. I personally like mint better than the other options but really, any of them would do to.
To make it vegan, replace the yogurt sauce with a tahini sauce! There are a few options, and if you ask me about my favorite ones I would advise you this one with lemon and cilantro, or this one with harissa if you would like to add a spicy kick to the recipe.
Other eggplant recipes you might also like:
- Honey-drizzled Eggplant & Goat Cheese Stacks
- Vegan Eggplant Shakshuka
- Easy Eggplant Chickpea Curry (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
- Eggplant Rolls filled with Roasted Garlic Hummus (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
- Baba Ganoush
- Vegetarian Eggplant Meatballs
Summer is right around the corner and I’m sure you will find some great inspiration among the above recipe to kick-start the eggplant season!
Quinoa Stuffed Eggplant with Mint Yogurt Sauce (Gluten-Free)
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Plant-based
- Cuisine: Around the world
Quinoa stuffed eggplant with quinoa-nut crumble and topped with a mint yogurt sauce is a simple healthy dish and favorite summer weeknight meal. Naturally gluten-free, it is full of goodness and flavor.
Email me this recipe
We’ll send it straight to your inbox, along with weekly food inspiration!
Ingredients
For the eggplant:
- 4 baby or Italian eggplants, sliced in half with the stems kept
- 3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, more as needed
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
For the quinoa-nut crumble:
- 1/2 cup (90g) uncooked quinoa
- 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup (150g) walnuts, roughly chopped
- 2 cup (150g) mushrooms, roughly chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 Tablespoon tomato paste
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- A pinch red pepper flakes
- Salt and black pepper
For the mint yogurt sauce:
- 1 1/2 cup (350g) plain Greek yogurt
- 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Fresh mint leaves
- A pinch red pepper flakes
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
Instructions
For the eggplant:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Slice eggplant in half and score the flesh in a diamond cross-hatch pattern by making two or three long cuts, cutting at a steep angle, and then rotating the eggplant to make another set of similar cuts. Brush generously with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.
- Arrange each half, cut side down, on the baking sheet and roast for about 30 minutes, or until tender.
For the quinoa-nut crumble:
- Cook the quinoa according to package instructions. Set aside.
- In a food processor, place walnuts and mushrooms, and pulse 2 or 3 times, until thin and crumbly.
- Heat olive oil in a medium frying pan, and sauté the nut-muhroom crumble for a couple of minutes. Add minced garlic and sauté one more minute. Pour in the tomato paste and stir well.
- Add cooked quinoa, season with cumin, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir well to combine. Set aside.
For the yogurt sauce:
- Combine all the ingredients together.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.
For assembling:
- Place grilled eggplant on desired serving dish.
- Top with nut crumble, and smear a generous amount of mint yogurt sauce onto each eggplant. Serve immediately.
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Lastly, if you make this Quinoa Stuffed Eggplant with Mint Yogurt Sauce (Gluten-Free), be sure to leave a comment and give this recipe a rating, letting me know how you liked it. And of course, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Thank you and enjoy!
