I am hosting the gluten-free menu swap this week with eggplant as the theme ingredient. I love eggplant for its wonderful texture and versatility. Grilling it gives it wonderful flavor in eggplant “steaks”, and roasting creates a smooth luxurious puree that adds wonderful body to recipes. It can even be used as an unconventonal dairy substitute as seen in this mayo-eggplant pizza topping. What’s your favorite way to enjoy eggplant? Tell me in the comments.

Here are some of mine:
Eggplant Parmesan
Eggplant Lentil Soup
Vegetarian Tempeh Moussaka Recipe

Monday: Middle Eastern
Gluten Free flatbread
Baba Ganoush
Bean salad

Tuesday: Italian
Roasted Vegetable Gluten Free Pasta with vegan nut topping

Tuesday: Italian
Arugula Gnocchi
Grilled Veggie Antipasti and beans

Friday: Southern
Cornbread vegetarian stuffing
pressure cooker beans
slow cooked greens

Asparagus Thin never disappoints with her rich and varied international menus. With a renewed enthusiasm for a vegetarian, gluten-free diet, Manda will be enjoying Roasted Eggplant and Onion Panzanella and Eggplant Avocado Pasta. Recipes, please!!! :)

Celiacs in the House has beautiful photos of the Fall harvest and a tasty menu including Fried Rice with Tofu. Her family didn’t seem to care for eggplant last time she tried it so she’s skipping it- the DH doesn’t either but I’ve won him over with some of my recipes.

Kimberly at Gluten Free is Life is a girl after my own heart and could eat eggplant every day! She’s making an easy Eggplant Parmesan that sounds just about perfect.

A Modern Gal’s hubby just doesn’t enjoy eggplant- seems like these husbands (including mine) should form a club. hehe. But she has a great international menu planned with red curry and Indonesian spicy rice w/ egg that you should check out.

Celiac Family has a menu full of tasty dishes, relying on zucchini and tomatoes rather than eggplant since that is what their garden is producing. I often find that I can use zucchini instead of eggplant in grilled recipes and it works quite well.

Gluten-free Food storage has a week full of homey favorites planned, although eggplant is not featured as it is not in their garden.

Angela’s Kitchen has a week full of tasty baked goods planned, along with mini corn dogs for GF family members on a trip to the fair. She also shared her favorite way to enjoy eggplant in the comments.

Green v-neck is a gluten-free blogger new to me, and has a lovely vegan menu planned. Alas, no eggplant. but, she does have some tasty dishes- I’d especially like to come to dinner at her house on wednesday when she will have peanut tofu, curried baked brown rice & lentils. I’d settle for the recipe, in a pinch. (hint hint) :)

If you would like to participate in this week’s Gluten-free Menu Plan Monday please post in the comments. Unfortunately it seems that my email service, Contactify, is down at the moment. I’ll add your menu as soon as i can.

Don’t forget to check out more menus at Org Junkie.

Vegan Baba Ganoush Recipe Vegan  Side Dish  Sauces & Condiments  Vegetables  Middle Eastern

Ingredients 1 large eggplant 2 tbsp. tahini, plus more as needed 1-3 garlic cloves 1/4 onion, sliced and grilled 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, plus more as needed 1 tsp whole cumin, toasted 1 tbsp. roasted sesame seeds, coarsely ground in mortar and pestle salt, to taste smoked paprika, to taste 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs for garnish 1/2tsp. specialty olive oil (like lemon infused) for garnish kalamata or other favorite olive for garnish Directions Roast eggplant in oven on 375 for 15 minutes on each side, or for 15 minutes on the grill and 15 minutes in the oven. Bake garlic cloves at the same time unpeeled wrapped in aluminum foil. Then reserve and cool. Grill onion slices until done on a grill (or caramelize in a pan). Dice a small amount for garnish and reserve the rest. Toast your whole cumin in a pan on the stove to bring out the flavor. Put your roasted garlic (now peeled) and the reserved grilled onion in your food processor and blend. Add your eggplant and blend. Reserve some eggplant to chop or mash by hand if you like your baba ghanoush chunky. Add lemon juice, cumin, tahini, and cumin seeds and blend to desired consistency. Remove lid and add additional spices, but wait to add the garnish until it is in aserving dish. Then, sprinkle with diced grilled onion, additional kosher salt if you like, additional smoked paprika for color, olives and fresh herbs etc. Finally drizzle a little olive oil on top and serve.

Rating:  8 Original Source:  Adapted from various recipes to become an original creation. Pleasedo not replicate without permission. Thanks! Recipe ID:  1449 Added:  August 30, 2009 Last Modified:  August 31, 2009

Having trouble finding the ingredients? I bulk order through Amazon for the best prices on Pamela’s and some of my flours…

Roasted Eggplant Lentil Tahini Vegetarian Soup Recipe Soup  Vegetables  Middle Eastern

Ingredients 1 lg. eggplant smoked paprika salt olive oil 1-2 tbsp. olive oil 1/2 large onion, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 1 scant stalk of celery, sliced 3 cloves garlic, peeled zest from 1 fresh lemon 4-6 cups water(enough to fill about half of a medium size dutch oven) salt to taste parsley, fresh & chopped or dried generous amounts of smoked paprika 3 tbsp. tahini 1 cup milk (dairy or dairy-free unflavored) 1/2 package of Trader Joe’s cooked lentils OR 2 cups cooked lentils that you have prepared in lightly salted water sprinkling of brown rice vinegar to taste Directions Roast halved eggplant in 375 oven lightly basted with olive oil and seasoned with smoked paprika and salt flesh-side-up for 30 minutes, and then turn and bake for 15 more minutes or so. Remove and reserve. When cool(ER) peel and cut into cubes. Heat olive oil in dutch oven and saute onion, carrot, celery, and garlic cloves until onion starts to turn translucent. Add water, parsley, lemon zest, and salt and bring to a low boil until the water is infused with vegetable flavor. Add tahini and let dissolve into broth along with reserved eggplant cubes. Let simmer for a bit and then whisk in milk. Taste and season with additional salt, smoked paprika, and parsley as you like. Take off burner. Use immersion blender to blend all ingredients into a smooth soup. (You can remove some of the garlic if you like before doing this step.) Return to the burner on low-medium and add lentils whole without blending in. Heat soup until lentils are warm. To serve, remove from burner, let cool SLIGHTLY sprinkle a little brown rice vinegar in the soup (making sure it doesn’t separate when you add it, and if it starts to, let soup cool more or drizzle vinegar in individual servings of soup.

Rating:  9 Original Source:  Completely original creation of my own brain. Do not replicate anywhere without my permission. Recipe ID:  1409 Added:  May 7, 2009 Last Modified:  May 14, 2009

Hearty Grain Cornbread with Pamela’s baking and pancake mix recipe Bread  Alternative Grains  American

Ingredients 1-1/4 cup Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix 3/4 cup fine yellow cornmeal 1/4 cup montina flour (or other whole grain hearty flour 1/4 cup agave nectar 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 egg, beaten 1 cup milk 2 tablespoons melted butter or olive oil Directions Line an 8 inch square pan with parchment paper and grease if you like. Preheat oven to 370. Whisk ingredients together in a medium-large bowl. Pour batter into pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan and then gently use knife to remove bread from edges of pan and release onto a cooling rack.

Rating:  7 Original Source:  Modified from Pamela’s cornbread recipe to add whole grain flavor and lower on the glycemic index. Please do not replicate without my permission. Recipe ID:  1408 Added:  May 7, 2009 Last Modified:  May 18, 2009