Carbohydrates per serve: approx. 9g*. I’m really happy with my Vegan Eggplant Parmigiana recipe! I just love when a meal which is traditionally quite heavy in animal products can be successfully veganised and still ridiculously tasty! My vegan eggplant parmigiana is the perfect comfort meal especially in the colder months. It’s also nice and low in carbohydrates but still filling. Don’t let the cook time or the amount of steps put you off, I promise it’s really not that hard, plus it’s totally worth it! Warning: This meal smells SO GOOD when it’s cooking and is likely to make you very hungry.

What is parmigiana?

Parmigiana is essentially just a dish cooked with cheese. So you can get pretty much any type of parmigiana. I think the most common are probably chicken parmigiana and eggplant parmigiana. But the OG parmigiana is the eggplant version, which in Italy where it originated is called melanzane alla parmigiana. The word parmigiana translates to parmesan, as in the cheese, which is named after the Italian city Parma where the cheese was first made. So that’s one theory on the origin of the name and history of the dish. 

What is in this vegan eggplant parmigiana?

For this recipe you will need two medium sized eggplants – or aubergine, depending on what part of the world you’re in. You’ll need a nice meltable vegan cheese and some vegan parmesan.

For the homemade marinara sauce, you will need a red onion, garlic, a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes, dried oregano, salt and pepper. Using tinned tomatoes works really well, it’s so much easier as you don’t need to cook the tomatoes down for ages to soften them. Plus buying tinned rather than fresh is so much more affordable! You can also add some red wine to your sauce if that’s your jam (it’s definitely mine!) but that’s totally optional. If you’re feeding kids it’s ok to still use wine as the alcohol will get cooked out.  A merlot or pinot noir works quite well. 

To add some more texture and flavour and to make it a bit more filling I added a sunflower seed topping. This is made from, you guessed it, sunflower seeds! As well as garlic powder, dried oregano and more vegan parmesan and it’s really delicious! It goes slightly crispy in the oven…mmmm. 

What vegan cheese works best?

The only thing I had to do to make this traditionally cheese heavy dish vegan is swap out the cheese for a dairy-free cheese. I didn’t make my own, I just bought vegan cheeses from my local supermarket which makes this dish so much easier!

For the cheddar you want a cheese which melts well! There are so many different brands out there and what you have available to you will depend on where you live. I used Zenzo cheddar. It has a good flavour and as I mentioned, melts well. I have also tried this using Angel Food Cheddar which is also fine but it doesn’t melt quite as well as the Zenzo one. 

For the parmesan, to be honest I didn’t have a lot of choice. There was only one available at my local supermarket, but luckily it is one I like. It was Angel Food parmesan. It has a really nice parmesan-like flavour to it which is the main thing I was wanting. Feel free to try this recipe out with your fave vegan cheeses and let me know what worked, I’d love to know!

How do I make vegan eggplant parmigiana?

Step One – Preheat oven to 180℃

Step Two – Peel and slice the red onion and garlic cloves. Add to a pot or saucepan with a good dash of cooking oil on a low-medium heat. Cook onion and garlic until soft and starting to gain some colour. Add the wine if using and cook down for about 2 minutes.

Step Three – Add the tinned tomatoes and turn the heat up slightly so it gets to a low boil.  Add dried oregano and then leave to cook, stirring occasionally while you move onto the next few steps. 

Step Four – Slice the eggplants into 1cm thick pieces. Put a frying pan on a medium-high heat with around 1 tbsp of cooking oil. Add the eggplant slices in a single layer so they aren’t overlapping (you will likely need to cook in batches) and cook for about 4 mins each side until browning.

Step Five – Set cooked eggplant slices aside on paper towels to drain off excess oil.

Step Six – Your marinara sauce should be pretty well ready now, just season to taste with salt and pepper.

Step Seven – To make the sunflower seed topping, use a food processor or nutribullet (or similar) to grind the sunflower seeds into a flour. Mix in the parmesan, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Step Eight – It’s now time to build your parmigiana! Start with a thin layer of the marinara sauce in the bottom of a baking dish, approximately 25x25cm. Add half of the eggplant slices, followed by half of the grated vegan cheddar and half of the vegan parmesan. Add half of the remaining marinara sauce.

Step Nine – Add the rest of the eggplant slices, followed by the rest of the cheddar and parmesan and the last of the sauce.

Step Ten – Sprinkle the prepared sunflower seed topping on top of the parmigiana, then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

Step Eleven – Bake in the oven for 10 minutes covered, then remove the lid and bake for a further 20 minutes. Serve hot with fresh basil or oregano. 

If I have leftovers can I store and then reheat?

Yes! This dish refrigerates really well for a couple of days. Just re-heat for 2-3 minutes in the microwave. You can also freeze it. Separate it into serving sizes and store each individually in a freezer safe container. Defrost when you want to eat it, and again put it in the microwave for a few minutes until hot.

If you liked this meal you will definitely love my Vegan Eggplant Lasagna! 

*9g of carbohydrates per serve will vary depending on which brand of vegan cheeses you use. Be sure to check nutritional information. I used Zenzo cheddar and Angel Food parmesan for this recipe and based my carbohydrate counting off those brands.