Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables, and that might be because it's meaty in texture and when cooked right, have a pleasant and sweet flavor. I used to hear that eggplant has no health benefit, but that's absolutely wrong!
Eggplant helps in reducing bad cholesterol and it also helps in relaxing the heart muscle. Eggplant prevent blood clots, has iron, vitamin K, calcium, fiber, and is low in calories.
Mesa'ah or مسقعه is an Egyptian dish but of course modified to a lighter and easier version. This dish gets its flavor from beef and eggplant, therefore you won't use many spices, and the spices used are in small amount.
In the original recipe the eggplant is deep fried, that what makes it caramelized and sweet, but also heavy.
When making Mesa'ah, you place a layer of beef and a layer of fried eggplant, but in my version, we will cook them together, to reduce time and the end result will taste the same as the original recipe.
Beef and Eggplant Sauce
Serves 3. 269 calories per serving.
3 cups eggplant, peeled and cut into bite size
250gm ground beef
2 cups boiling water divided
Black pepper
Salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 large onion chopped
3 garlic cloves minced
2 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cooking oil
- Place eggplant in a colander, sprinkle around ½ teaspoon salt, leave for 5 minutes. The eggplant will release water
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
- Wash the eggplant from salt, place on a baking sheet. Dry the eggplant using paper towel. Season with black pepper and salt, add 2 teaspoon olive oil and mix well with your hands. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 10 – 15 minutes, or until the eggplant is tender but still holding its shape.
- In a frying pan, add chopped onion, cook until it starts to change color to light brown, now add 1 teaspoon oil and cook for three minutes, stir continuously.
- Add the ground beef and cook for 5 minutes, add the garlic and season with black pepper and cinnamon.(don't add salt if the eggplant have enough salt already).
- Pour one cup boiling water and let it evaporates. Add another cup of boiling water and tomato paste, stir well then add the eggplant.
- Cover and let cook until you get around ¼ cup of gravy/sauce in the pan.
Angie (@angiesrecipess)
Low fat, low calorie and very delicious!
munatycooking
Thanks Angie 🙂
Farah @ The Cooking Jar
Eggplant is a touch and go for me, depending on the recipe. That being said, this one sounds really good! I imagine the textures of eggplant and ground beef working really well together. Thanks for the trick on dehydrating the eggplant, I didn't know that one!
munatycooking
You are right Farah, the texture of the eggplant went really well with the beef and the sweetness from the eggplants made enhanced the flavor overall!
Nami | Just One Cookbook
One of my favorite meat sauce includes eggplant so I already see I enjoy this tremendously! Love to use it with the bread. Never occurred to me before but it's a great idea!