Courtesy of NFCA, Crunchmaster and Renegade Kitchen
Prep time: 1 hour (mostly spent caramelizing onions)
Baking time: Less than 1 hour
Makes: One 8×8 dish
Gluten-Free Eggplant Casserole
Ingredients
1 large yellow onion
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 large eggplant
½ cup coarse cornmeal, separated in half
Handful of fresh basil
12-15 Kalamata olives, pitted
1 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes
1 package Crunchmaster Original Multi-Seed Crackers
3 cloves garlic
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
Directions:
- Start by caramelizing your onion. This will take some time so you may want to make a giant batch; caramelized onions freeze brilliantly. Slice your onion as thinly as possible. Heat some olive oil in a pot over medium heat and toss in the onions. Drop the heat to low and stir the onions occasionally as they reduce. You’re looking for onions with a golden/bronze shimmer; it may take as long as 45 minutes (depending on how low the heat is set and how many onions you choose to work with). Set the caramelized onion aside.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cut off the top of the eggplant and slice the body into 1-2 inch cubes (precision not necessary, so put away the ruler). Put the cubes in an 8×8 baking dish and drizzle them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Slide the dish into your oven to roast for 25 minutes, or until the eggplant is slightly wrinkled.
- Dust the top of the roasted eggplant with ¼ cup of the corn meal (half of the total amount). Spread your caramelized onion over that, using your fingers to evenly distribute the gold. Next, chop the basil and pitted olives (roughly) and scatter them over the onions.
- Scatter the remaining ¼ cup corn meal over everything and grind some black pepper into the dish. Pour the can of chopped tomatoes into the casserole and give the dish a shake to settle the liquid. Bake the dish at 400 degrees for another 25 minutes.
- While the casserole is baking, make the topping! Crush the crackers until they are the size of small pebbles. Chop the garlic and toss it with the crackers, using the 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil to bind everything.
- After 25 minutes, take the casserole out of the oven and top it with the crushed crackers. Bake the casserole for another 10-15 minutes or until the crackers are lightly browned (but not burned).
- Remove and serve.
The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness offers Vitacost.com website visitors weekly recipes and blogs about living the gluten-free lifestyle. For more information about celiac disease and gluten-free living, visit www.celiaccentral.org.