Eggplant (Aubergine) Casserole -- Perfect for Passover

Submitted by Mirj2338

"This is one of my most successful attempts at getting my BH to eat something he claims he hates. BH despises eggplant, or so he says. I started making this about 5 years ago (got the idea from my upstairs neighbor). I haven't yet told him about the secret ingredient. Don't you dare tell him either!"

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, sliced thin
• 1 medium eggplant, pared and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1⁄2 green pepper, diced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (4 ounce) can mushrooms
• 2 tomatoes, cubed
• 1 lb cream-style cottage cheese
• 1 1⁄2 cups matzo farfel or 2 matzos, finely broken

directions

1. Saute the onion in butter.
2. Combine the next 6 ingredients.
3. Add the sauteed onion, cover and cook for 15 minutes.
4. Stir in the tomatoes.
5. Grease a 2-quart casserole and arrange alternate layers of vegetables, cottage cheese and farfel, beginning and ending with vegetables.
6. Bake uncovered at 350° for 20 to 30 minutes.
7. This may be put together ahead of time and refrigerated.

Reviews

[Shari2]

This was very tasty. Luckily for me noone else in the house will eat it. I was looking for something to make with my eggplant and this hit the spot. Easy to make and tasty. Thanks Mirj.

 

[bposnick]

I've made the vegan version of this several times and love it--basically the same recipe with a little more eggplant and sauce and no cottage cheese. Tonight I decided to make it as a dairy main dish and found this. I did make a couple of changes -- I cut the cottage cheese in half, but added 5 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese - 2 ounces in the layers, and 3 ounces on top for the last 10 minutes of cooking. I also still used a medium eggplant and an 11 ounce can of tomato-mushroom sauce, per the vegan version of the recipe. It came out really well!

 

[Laura S.]

First things first - this is a 5-star recipe on taste. I made it for a vegetarian Passover seder and people loved it. That said, this is the second time I've tried it, and it's a little confusing. For example, at what heat should the onions be sautéed at and at what heat should the mix of the first 8 ingredients be covered for 15 minutes to cook at? Should the liquid of the canned mushrooms go in with the mushrooms? (I figure yes to make sure there is enough liquid to look the sauce down, but...not sure). Also, the chopping alone for this recipe takes me at least 15 minutes, plus measuring out other things, the pre-baking cooking, etc. so I have found the estimated time to prepare the total dish (prep + cook) to be hugely misleading. (And yet - I am making it again, because it was tasty and people really enjoyed it... and I have leftover farfel!)

 

[scancan]

Well I fooled the eggplant haters too and we all enjoyed. It was a bit of a pain cutting up and sauteing all those vegetables so next time I'd prepare the vegetables the day before and then finish up the next day because I was in a rush and it was time consuming.