CHILE SPICED MANGO STUFFED EGGPLANT

Chile Spiced Mango Stuffed Eggplant image

Not a boring stuffed eggplant... spicy and sweet and beautiful! Eggplants are so versatile... if treated properly, you can add them to anything; they absorb so much flavor. Eggplants hold lots of moisture and become mushy when cooked for a long time. Sometimes you need to "sweat" eggplants with a dry salt bath... don't need to do that for this recipe. But, I do take out some of the moisture using papertowels and a weight on the eggplant bits...

Provided by Monica H @MonisiaH

Categories Sides

Number Of Ingredients 16

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Ingredients

2 - baby eggplants
6-7 - baby onions
1 - carrot
1 - celery stalk
2 - tomatoes
1/4 - red bell pepper
4-5 - slices of chile-spiced mango (reserve extra diced mango for garnish at the end)
2 tablespoon(s) olive oil
2 teaspoon(s) salted butter
1 1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
2 1/2 teaspoon(s) garlic
2 teaspoon(s) pepper
1/4 teaspoon(s) chili powder
1 tablespoon(s) paprika
2 tablespoon(s) breadcrumbs
1/4 cup(s) grated cheese (any cheese that you love, that will easily melt)

Steps:

Cut top tips off of eggplants. Peel eggplants halfway down. Cut just a little off their bottoms so they can stand straight up.
Using a tablespoon, carefully cut and scoop out centers of eggplants (but don't go through the bottom!) Save the stuff you scoop out.
Store the eggplant vessels in a bowl filled with cold water. Put something over the top to weigh them down a little so they stay submerged (otherwise they will oxidize and turn brown, like apples do).
Finely dice the baby onions into mini-rounds. Sautee in pan with the 1 Tbs. of olive oil.
In the meantime, dice the scooped-out insides of the eggplant. Place on a plate in one layer, cover with a paper towel, and weigh it down with coffee mugs (this will take out some of the moisture from the eggplant).
Finely dice the carrot, celery and red bell pepper. After the onion has been sauteeing for about 6-7 minutes, add these to the pan.
Dice the tomatoes. Add to pan, and now add your salt, pepper and 1 tsp of the garlic.
Stir and cover. Sautee for 5 minutes.
Uncover and add eggplant. Now add the rest of the garlic and paprika and the chili powder. Don't stir; cover and sautee for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, uncover and stir. Cover and sautee 5 more minutes. In the meantime, pour the other 1 Tbs. of olive oil in loaf baking pan and place in oven. Preheat oven to 350*.
Turn off heat under pan. Finely dice 2-3 slices of the chile-spiced mango. Add to pan and stir.
Stuff eggplants with mixture. Place eggplants in hot baking pan, and bake uncovered for 35 minutes. (You will have left-over mixture. Save and eat it as a side!)
After 35 minutes, remove pan, and add 1 tsp of butter to the top of each eggplant. Sprinkle each top with 1 tablespoon breadcrumbs to cover. Top breadcrumbs with stratigically placed cheese bits.
Put eggplants back in oven and bake 8-10 more minutes until cheese is melted.
Take out eggplants, cover loosely with foil and let rest 10 minutes before serving. Make sure to sprinkle more diced mango on top, and even serve with some whole chili mango slices on the side that can also be used as "scoopers" of the eggplant stuffing!