Veggin’

This dish really surprised me. I, honestly, wasn’t expecting it to come out so good. This dish is all vegetable – eggplant, tomatoes and onions. When I stacked the ingredients casserole-style, I was convinced it would be suitable as just a side item…but then came the sour cream. Wow, did that that transform the dish.

I used fat fat free sour cream and it worked great. I’d almost think that the full fat version would overwhelm the dish and make you walk away from the table with an overly full stomach. (I hate it when that happens!) I also added a few extra steps from the original recipe which called for just adding raw sliced onions. I, instead, only used one onion instead of two but sauteed it in some olive oil and chopped herbs to add a little more depth to the flavor.

Finally, I was only able to taste one serving of eggplant as the rest was consumed heartily by my in-house taste tester. The next day, I was ready to eat the leftovers, and was faced only with the empty serving dish in the sink. I guess that was his implicit seal of approval.

Russian Eggplant

Adapted by Megabeth from AllRecipes

• 1 large eggplant, peeled and sliced into 1/3 inch rounds
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1-2 cups water (enough to cover eggplant slices in a bowl)
• 3 large tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (oregano, basil, thyme)
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• paprika to taste