Cheesy stuffed eggplant

   Stuffed eggplant is one of my go-to recipes when I don't know what to cook. It's easy to make and really delicious. This time I found a new cheesy recipe here and I tweaked it a bit to make it my own :D It's sooo cheesy and sooo good that it was worth sharing! So let me tell you how I cooked it:

Ingredients for 4 servings:

- 2 medium eggplants

- a medium white onion

- a small carrot

- 2-3 medium tomatoes

- 400g minced meat (I used pork but you can use a mix if you prefer)

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 2 tsp salt

- a pinch of fresh pepper

- 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

- 200g grated cheese (of your preferred choice)

- 30 ml oil

Steps:

1. Cut the eggplant into 2 lengthwise including the tail.

2. With a spoon, remove the eggplant core, but leave a layer of about half a cm. Sprinkle with salt and set aside. You will see that a brown liquid will accumulate.

3. To make the stuffing, dice the eggplant core, the tomatoes, the onion and the garlic and grate the carrot on a small grater.

4. Put the oil in a pan, add the onion and the carrot and quickly cook in the pan, over high heat, for 2-3 minutes. 

5. Now add in the minced meat. Let it cook for 10 minutes.

6. Add the diced tomatoes, diced eggplant, salt, pepper and garlic and let everything simmer for another 10-15 minutes. At the end, add the parsley.

7. Preheat the oven to 200 C, fire up and down in electric ovens, medium to maximum fire in gas ovens.

8. By now the eggplant halves have softened and the bitter liquid came out. Wash them with running water and dry them well with napkins.

9. Place the eggplant halves in a baking tray, add the stuffing and then generously sprinkle the grated cheese on top.

10. Pour a cup of water in the tray and then cover it with aluminum foil, but make sure it doesn't touch the eggplants (I used toothpicks for this). 

11. Put the eggplants in the oven to tan ;)  Bake them for 40 min, then take the tinfoil off and let the melted cheese brown for 5 more minutes. 

Bon appetit! :D