My Aubergine and Pesto Bake is a simple meal that can be placed on the table in just 45 minutes. Get the recipe below.
Simple suppers
This blog was built on simple suppers that I was making for me and my housemates while I was at university. This Aubergine and Pesto Bake was one of those meals that everyone loved. It is packed full of veggies, made with every student's favourite store cupboard staple (pesto) and topped with cheese. All we needed was a stick of garlic bread and we were happy.
It's simple, packed full of flavour and cheap to make. Is it any surprise that I still cook this Aubergine and Pesto Bake almost weekly?
Assembling the dish couldn't be easier.
It's made up of layers of onion, beef tomato and aubergine, each brushed with pesto. As it bakes in the oven the vegetables become melt in the mouth tender and infuse with the flavours of the pesto. I like to top mine with a generous helping of mozzarella, pine nuts and a few leaves of basil.
I love to use aubergines because they become velvety soft as they bake and they really soak up the flavours of the tomato, onion, garlic and pesto. But, if you don't have aubergines courgettes also work well.
Make it vegan
This recipe is vegetarian by default. But, you can easily make it vegan by using a dairy free pesto and vegan mozzarella.
I use Sacla's plant based pesto as it is almost identical to their vegetarian version.
For the mozzarella I can recommend any of the following brands which all melt perfectly:
- Mozzarellie from KindaCo (a soft cheese that melts really well and tastes creamy like mozzarella)
- M&S Plant Kitchen Not'zarella (a shredded mozzarella alternative)
- Bluffala from Strictly Roots (a ball of mozarella like nut cheese that is as good in salads as it is melted)
- Mozzarisella (perfect for anyone who can't eat nuts or soy)
If you know of any other good vegan mozzarella substitutes, let me know in the comments!
The recipe
Aubergine and Pesto Bake
Equipment
- 20cm pie tin
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large aubergine
- 2 beef tomatoes
- 1 white onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 100 grams pesto
- 75 grams mozzarella
- 2 tablespoon pine nuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F / gas mark 6.
- Brush your pie dish with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
- Mix the remaining olive oil with the pesto and minced garlic and place to one side.
- Thinly slice the aubergine, tomato and onion into rings.
- Begin layering the vegetables into the dish, brushing them with a little pesto each time and scattering over a few pine nuts. Repeat until all of the vegetables and pesto have been used.
- Place in the centre of the oven and cook for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
- After the 30 minutes, top with slices of mozzarella. Cook for another 10 mins. In the final 5 minutes top with any remaining pine nuts.
- Once cooked, remove from the oven. Serve warm with a few basil leaves to finish.
Nutrition
Serve with...
My Aubergine and Pesto Bake tastes great with a simple green salad or focaccia or garlic bread to mop up the juices!
More delicious dinners
If you like this recipe, then why not try one of these similar dishes which are suitable for a vegetarian or vegan diet.
For the full range of recipes check out the dinner recipe archive.
You can also search the blog by meal, and other categories in the main recipe index.
If you think there are any categories missing that you would find helpful, let me know!
Spencer. says
Looks like a great recipe 🙂 I absolutely adore pesto but I've so far limited myself to eating it with pasta and paninis, tehe. Hope you have a lovely weekend m'dear! x
efwalt says
Reblogged this on Supper in the Suburbs.
goodfoodmarsh says
Oh WOW. This aubergine bake looks fantastic! I've been using aubergine so much on my blog recently, but hadn't thought about anything like this! Thanks for sharing 🙂
efwalt says
Goodfoodmarsh, aubergine is one of my favourite veggies!!!
I'll have to check out some of your recipes too 🙂