Gluten Free Eggplant Lasagna Roll Ups

Eggplant is such a versatile vegetable.  I call it the chameleon vegetable.  Half the time you won’t even
notice it’s there.  I love that it takes on whatever flavors you combine it with.  Another great thing is you can find it year round.

The kids were still on a vegetable strike, so I needed to find something to aid me in hiding all the wonderful nutrition.  Eggplant was ready and willing to help.  Now if I could sneak in some spinach…  Have I told you how much I love spinach?  It rocks!  Spinach is high in iron, magnesium and folate.  Pair it with an acid like tomato and it’ll absorb all the goodies.

Enter spaghetti sauce.

I have a love/hate relationship with spaghetti sauce.  I love it for it’s ability to make anything taste better and it always helps in hiding vegetables.  I hate it because of the mess and the sodium content.  The thing is, I haven’t been able to find an organic low sodium spaghetti sauce that does not contain soybean oil.  Even Whole Foods Brand contains soybean oil.  I know I could make my own sauce but it just takes too long and then it takes up space in the freezer.  Convenience over excess salt (at the moment at least).  I only use organic sauces and have found luck at Trader Joe’s.

For this recipe the eggplant will be the “noodles” and spinach will be the filling.  You’ll notice I did not add any additional salt to the eggplant or spinach.  The pre-made spaghetti sauce has more than enough sodium to add flavor to the eggplant.  The cream cheese also contains a large amount of sodium and will be enough for the spinach.

Eggplant soaks up moisture like a sponge.  If you rub it with water first and then oil, it’ll absorb less oil and end up healthier.

Enjoy this now or save and freeze for later!

• 1 large eggplant or 2 small ones
• 1 package frozen organic spinach
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1 jar of favorite spaghetti sauce
• 1/4 tsp garlic
• 1/2-1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1-2 T water
• 2-3 T oil