Healthy Eggplant Parmesan

This Healthy Eggplant Parmesan is a flavorful, light twist on an all-time favorite. It makes the BEST Eggplant Parmesan Pasta!

Eggplants are roasted until tender and tossed with pasta smothered with flavourful sun-dried tomato pesto. This lovely pasta dish is light, vegetarian and gluten-free.

After a weekend of grilling, the week has to start off with a healthy vegetarian pasta! So are you a fan of Eggplant Parmesan pasta? Have you tried making it healthier, lighter or just more appealing to healthy people in your life?

HEALTHY EGGPLANT PARMESAN

I once had a request for a cooking class, it was a special Italian dinner where the group wanted to make pasta from scratch and many Italian classics from scratch— but it had to be light and healthy.

They were willing to cook/bake/chop/do anything required to make the event a success. So when the cooking school contacted me—this recipe for healthy Eggplant Parmesan came to mind as a must-have on the menu!

I think my husband can qualify as the number one fan of this eggplant recipe —but then again he is a fan of anything eggplant. My grandpa’s Fried Eggplant Salad is another eggplant recipe you can’t miss!

PLUS — this ever so popular Grilled Chicken Parmesan recipe which has been made and pinned over 200K times!

I am a fan of this healthy eggplant Parmesan recipe for many reasons:

• It’s CRAZY DELICIOUS!
• I love the light feel and fresh taste here compared to the heavy saucy version.
• This means you WILL in fact taste the eggplant, the Parmesan and the pasta. 
• the oven does most of the work!
• You can prepare it in advance.
• It’ freezer friendly 🙂
• Leftovers are a dream and taste even better!

So back to the light Italian cooking event, everyone was anxious to taste the difference, and mostly anxious to to see if this recipe will offer the same comfort they expect from a classic eggplant Parmesan.

After much anticipation on their end (and quite honestly some stress on my end—hoping to deliver), the healthy eggplant parmesan served with pasta was declared a WINNER!!

MAKE EGGPLANT PARMESAN PASTA

Now I’ll walk you through tiny tips and tricks why this recipe is indeed a winner! So it starts with roasting eggplant slices.

If you’re used to the melt in your mouth, utterly sweet taste of fried eggplants—you’ll have quite a bit of time adjusting to the taste and texture of roasted eggplant slices.

So to avoid this and get the same results as frying, we roast the eggplant slices while covered. This produces ultra soft melt in your mouth eggplant slices that also cook much faster!! So it’s a win win situation!

The sun dried tomato pesto is one of my favorite additions here. I am tweaking my recipe by actually doubling the amount of sun-dried tomatoes and adding tablespoons of canned crushed Roma tomatoes.

This produces an incredible boost of tomato flavor that’s much needed for this eggplant parmesan pasta recipe. Basically, after the eggplants are roasted , the pasta is cooked and pesto is zipped up in a food processor for 3 mins.

Everything is tossed together and served with a decent sprinkling Parmesan cheese on top (take this out if Vegan).

VEGAN EGGPLANT PARMESAN

Make this recipe into a vegan eggplant Parmesan by simply using vegan Parmesan cheese instead of the regular Parmesan and that’s it!

Super easy delicious twist!

Now go ahead, indulge and spare 20 mins for a fabulous healthy pasta twist on Italian Eggplant Parmesan!

HEALTHY EGGPLANT PARMESAN TIPS

• When roasting sliced eggplant in the oven, make sure you cover it with foil and create a steam like effect. This trick produces tender melt in your mouth eggplant —just like the ride version.
• The Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto adds enough tomato flavor without overpowering the eggplant and pasta. 
• The adjustment to the pesto is to add extra 2 Tablespoons crushed tomatoes.
• I used fettuccine for this recipe but linguine would work just as well.
• Make this vegan by skipping the parmesan or substituting vegan Parmesan cheese.
• Add extra walnut pieces for crunch (optional).

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Skinny Eggplant Parmesan Pasta

This skinny eggplant parmesan pasta is a flavorful, light twist on an all-time favorite. The eggplant is roasted until tender, then tossed with pasta smothered with flavourful sun-dried tomato pesto. This lovely pasta dish is light, vegetarian and gluten-free.

Course dinner, lunch, Main Course

Cuisine American, Italian

Keyword eggplant parmesan, pasta with eggplants, skinny eggplant parmiggiano

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 4 people

Calories 515 kcal

Author Mahy

Ingredients

• 4 large Japanese eggplants sliced into 1/4 inch slices totalling to 6 cups
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch black pepper
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

For the sun-dried tomato pesto

• 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons crushed canned tomatoes
• 1 lb fettuccine or your favorite pasta (gluten free if needed)
• Parmesan cheese for sprinkling (optional)
• chopped walnuts for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place the eggplant slices in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet and season them with salt, pepper, oregano and a drizzle of olive oil.

2. Cover the baking sheet with foil entirely and place in the oven to cook for 15-20 mins (depending on the thickness of your eggplant slices).
3. In the meantime, if your pesto is ready, place it in a food processor and add in the extra tomatoes. If not, then place all the sun-dried tomato pesto ingredients in a food processor with extra tomatoes and process until smooth.
4. Cook the pasta according to package instructions and save some of the pasta water ( the water where the pasta was cooked—like in this sun-dried mins Greek tortellini).
5. When the eggplant is ready, toss the pasta with the pesto and add in some pasta water 2 tablespoons at a time to lose up the pesto and form a sauce (as thick or thin as you like). Then toss in the eggplants. sprinkle some Parmesan and walnuts (optional) and serve.

Recipe Notes

• I used fettuccine for this recipe but linguine would work just as well.
• Make this vegan by skipping the parmesan.
• Add extra walnut pieces for crunch (optional).

Nutrition Facts

Skinny Eggplant Parmesan Pasta

Amount Per Serving (1 serving)

Calories 515 Calories from Fat 108

% Daily Value*

Fat 12g18%

Saturated Fat 2g13%

Cholesterol 95mg32%

Sodium 186mg8%

Potassium 512mg15%

Carbohydrates 84g28%

Fiber 4g17%

Sugar 4g4%

Protein 17g34%

Vitamin A 130IU3%

Vitamin C 2.7mg3%

Calcium 47mg5%

Iron 2.8mg16%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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