Healthy Comfort Foods: Cheesy Eggplant & Beef Bake Recipe

What ho! If you just want to grab the recipe and run, there it is above. If you have extra time to kill, there are a few more details/tips below.

(Before you leave, though, I’d like to thank Cooking Keto with Kristie for the original idea for this recipe – although we’ve adapted it somewhat, this recipe originally started with this.)

Anyway, on to just a few random things to know as you cook this…

One thing to be aware of is that this is not a quick meal you can throw together in a few minutes. It’ll take a few hours to make, so you should only cook this if you have a good chunk of time at your disposal. (Much of the time-consuming part is just stirring the eggplant every few minutes as its cooks, though, so it’s not like it needs your complete attention the whole time. You can easily be doing something else in the general vicinity of the stove during that time.)

Also, this is exceedingly important: the eggplant MUST be cooked enough. It really won’t taste as good if the eggplant isn’t soft. It should become pretty much complete mush (sounds very appetizing, I know. Sorry).

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you decide to use coconut oil to sauté the onions, make sure that it’s refined. The unrefined oil will taste like coconut (what a novel concept; coconut oil that tastes like coconut), and that might be a little strange in this particular dish. The refined coconut oil is tasteless, though, so that will work fine.

Another good thing to know is that this freezes well, so it works well to make a double batch and save half in the freezer for an easy meal later. If you do freeze it, get it all ready except the mozzarella on the top, and you can put that on right before you pop it in the oven.

Lastly, this is how the cheese should look when the bake is done.

Well, I think that about covers it. Have it with rice, pasta, parmesan cheese, or whatever else you want (or just by itself) and enjoy!

(Oh, and by the way, not required, but recommended, is to listen to this playlist as you cook. It’s good puttering-around-the-kitchen music.)