I like to cook summer vegetables while they are in season. I was surprised and pleased to discover that eggplant grows in a Louisiana garden. The first year that I grew eggplant they flourished with very little attention. Plenty of eggplant to cook and that sent me scrambling for recipes. Here’s one of my favorites. It makes the best of eggplant and other summer vegetables: “Melt-In-Your-Mouth” Eggplant Stacks.

Eggplant is a vegetable that I really didn’t eat when I was young. It is rather bland and soft or mushy when cooked. The texture is a turn-off. I learned to like this vegetable while in my first institutional food service job.

We had a very creative chef, Greg, who moved to Louisiana from New York City to lead the upscale hospital food service. Greg wasn’t afraid to serve new foods and recipes and he introduced the cafeteria to eggplant. Eggplant Stacks is a recipe that I’ve saved from those files. It’s a delicious way to serve this vegetable and the recipe makes use of several summer vegetables.

Tomatoes, onions and bell peppers make the “stacks” on the eggplant along with a slice of cheese, bacon and another eggplant round. These vegetables seem to “pop” with flavor along with the melt-in-your mouth rounds of eggplant. When baked, the onion and bell pepper retain some of their raw, fresh flavor.

The 1″ thick rounds of eggplant are breaded in seasoned flour and lightly fried in oil. The key here is to brown the eggplant rounds gently and slowly on medium heat so that they don’t burn. 

They are placed on in a baking pan or casserole dish with the tomatoes, onion and bell pepper layered on.

The stacks are topped with cheese and bacon, covered and baked in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes until the eggplant is cooked through. I used American cheese as this is what was in my refrigerator today. Provolone cheese is also tasty.

Here is a baked eggplant stack. This eggplant made 4 servings, with several small eggplant rounds left for anyone who wants a second helping.

The original recipe calls for a second breaded and fried eggplant slice to be placed on top. This makes a mighty tall eggplant stack. If you want to add a top eggplant slice, I would cut the eggplant slices thinner (about 3/4″), and fry them until completely cooked through. Then bake the stacks, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes.

Either way, this is a delicious way to serve eggplant.

Enjoy summer vegetables!