Eggplant Pizzas

Hi friends! Happy Monday to ya. Hope you had a wonderful weekend. After Saturday’s long run, I spent the day at work, crashed out embarrassingly early, and we spent all of Sunday just hanging out. Picking apples and pears was a blast, we grilled for dinner, ate some of the fudge from the apple orchard and had a dance party past a certain little lady’s bedtime.

We also shared an awesome afternoon snack. The seasonal star of the show: eggplants!

I kind of have a weird thing with eggplants. I love them, but every time I want to cook one, it feels like too much of an ordeal.

My tried and true eggplant recipes are a little more labor intensive, but soooo delicious: eggplant bacon and eggplant parmesan. Because they involve a little more prep and cook time, that means too many wrinkly eggplants have ended up in the trash can. (I feel like a guilty produce waster typing that, but it’s true.) I always end up “saving” the eggplants until I have extra time to create something amazing, but tend to forget that eggplants don’t need a lot of work to taste incredible; usually the simplest things are the most delicious.

We had a beautiful graffiti eggplant from our farm box, so before it got to be too late, I decided to use it as the base for some little pizzas.

I sliced it into thick rounds, then topped with some ghee, salt and pepper,

baked it for a little while (grilling them would probably work well too!),

then added some of our favorite toppings, and baked a little longer to warm everything through.

The eggplants were sturdy enough to provide a nice “crust, and are a great lower-carb option. I love the nutrient boost from eggplants, too.

Some of the benefits:

(Many of the phytonutrients are located in the skin, so make sure to keep in intact and enjoy)

-Great source of fiber, which can aid in digestion and help to keep you feeling full and satisfied. Adding some good fats and protein in these pizza rounds will improve satiety, too. You can also end Vitamin A, folate, B vitamins and vitamin C in eggplants

-Chlorogenic acid is the dominant antioxidant compound in eggplant, which aids in lowering LDL (<— “bad” cholesterol) and a high capacity to fight free radicals

-High in bioflavinoids, which can assist with stress reduction and controlling high blood pressure

-Can prevent blood clots, due to the capillary strengthening benefits of the nutrients

These little pizza rounds would make a beautiful vegetarian side dish or party appetizer, too! As fancy as they look, I still folded mine up to eat like tacos ?

Hope you love them <3

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Are you an eggplant fan, or not so much? Any favorite recipes to share?

For another lower carb healthy pizza option, check out this zucchini crust pizza, too!