Stuffed eggplants and zucchini

I decided to present you this tasty and saturating summer dish that you can easily prepare in the fasting days without using meat products. Don’t get discouraged by the long list of ingredients or the long preparation description. The stuffed eggplants and zucchini are considerably easy to make, part of the ingredients you can substitute with others of your liking, and, of course, it is not necessary to use both vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggplants
• 2 zucchini
• 1 big onion
• 3 carrots
• 1 green pepper
• 1 small piece of ginger (about the size of a hazelnut)
• 250g minced meat
• 4 tbsp. bulgur
• A bunch of parsley
• A couple of basil leaves
• 4 tbsp. Olive oil
• 30 g butter
• ½ tsp. cumin powder
• 1 big tomato
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• ½ tsp. turmeric
• a pinch of cinnamon
• A couple of crushed coriander seeds
• salt
• nutmeg
• black peppercorn

Preparation:

Wash the vegetables.

Cut the zucchini and the eggplants in half, but keep the stems so they wouldn’t fall apart when cooking. Scoop out the flesh and put it aside. Don’t scoop too deeply to avoid them breaking which may result in the stuffing leaking out of the vegetable when cooking.

Bake the eggplants with half the olive oil, the nutmeg and salt for about 10 minutes.

To prepare the stuffing, heat the rest of the olive oil with the butter in a 3-liter saucepan. Add the finely chopped onion, after that, the chopped carrots.

Add the thinly chopped peppers, ginger and garlic.

Next in line are the spices. Flavor with cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, and the crushed coriander.

Cook briefly while stirring until the aromas of the spices blend.

Add the bulgur and stir. Next, add the minced meat and mix together once again.

When the minced meat turns white, add the flesh of the eggplants and the zucchini.

Stir well and add the chopped and peeled tomato, the parsley and the basil.

Salt it and add black pepper, then take it off the stove.

Put the zucchini together with the eggplants in the oven and fill them with the stuffing. Bake 20-25 minutes in a preheated oven at 220˚C.

Optionally, you can sprinkle cheese or Parmesan on top about 10 minutes before taking the vegetables out of the oven.

Serve immediately and add cold yogurt sauce.

Note: If you want the dish to be suitable for vegans and vegetarians, don’t use butter and replace the minced meat with additional 4 tbsp. Bulgur.