Everything Eggplant Pizza Rounds
Recipe by Alysha Melnyk
Alysha Melnyk is the Founder and Content Creator of The Kitchenologist©, a food blog dedicated to healthy eating and kitchen experiments. Alysha combined her background in biology with her passion for making food delicious, eye-catching, and accessible. When she’s not cooking in the kitchen or dreaming up a recipe, Alysha works full time as an Implementation Specialist at ECRI, an international medical nonprofit located in suburban Philadelphia that is dedicated to improving patient safety worldwide. Alysha finds her many career passions revolve around the power of knowledge and that equipping people with the right tools and resources will help them make better informed decisions.
I am always looking for ways to incorporate anything pizza-like into my meal game! And these eggplant pizza rounds always hit the spot and are well beloved by family and friends. The great part about this recipe is you can choose to be as creative as you want and use whatever vegetables/other toppings you want to use. This recipe is perfect for any spare vegetables you want to use but aren’t 100% sure what to do with.
Serves 2 People for a Meal (*More as an Appetizer)
Ingredients
1 Italian Eggplant, Thinly Sliced into Rounds
1 Cup Tomato Sauce of Choice (I used a Tomato Basil one)
1 Cup Grated Asiago
2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes, Halved
1 Cup Sweet Pepper, Diced
1/3 Cup Pepperoni, Diced
1/2 Cup Onion, Diced
1/4 Cup Fresh Parmesan
1/4 Cup Fresh Basil, Torn
These are all approximate measurements and you can add more, less or something different as needed.
Method + Assembly
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Line one standard sheet pan with parchment paper.
Slice the Italian eggplant into thin slices, and lay slices on parchment paper.
Drizzle olive oil (lightly) all over the sheet pan and eggplant slices, then gently toss the eggplant in the olive oil and coat both sides of the slices while spreading the olive oil all over the parchment paper.
Sprinkle the eggplant slices with some salt and pepper, and then bake for 15 to 20 minutes (*bake 20 minute for softer eggplant).
After this time, remove the pan from the oven (while leaving the oven on), and top the eggplant slices with tomato sauce, cheese, minced garlic, halved cherry tomatoes, diced sweet pepper, diced onion, and diced pepperoni (don’t worry about being a bit messy – everything scoops up easily from the pan in the end haha!).
Place the pan back in the oven for five to ten more minutes until everything is melted and warmed (I normally do around 5 to 7 minutes).
Remove the pan from the oven, sprinkle rounds with parmesan, fresh torn basil, and extra black pepper, allow to cool five minutes, then serve, and enjoy!
