Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Cut eggplants in half, and then cut out a rectangular shape of flesh out of each eggplant and set aside. (see pictures). This is done to create sort of a ‘bowl’ in the eggplant so that your stuffing can sit inside of it, but also it allows us to cook some of the eggplant and include it in the stuffing itself. (don’t throw out rectangles!)
2. Place eggplants face down on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, coat with around 1/2 cup of vegetable broth and roast in the oven for 35 minutes. Check eggplants around the halfway mark and sprinkle more veg broth on top if they seem really dry.
3. Add mixed carrots and mushrooms to a saucepan, add 1/2 cup of vegetable broth, and cook over low/medium heat until soft. Chop up the rectangular pieces of eggplant flesh into cubes and add these to the saucepan once carrots are semi-soft (around the 10 minute mark). I like to add eggplant pieces last because eggplant cooks much faster than the carrots.
4. Once all veggies are soft and tender, and most of the veg broth has evaporated (within 15 to 20 minutes).. add 2 cups cooked quinoa to the saucepan and mix to combine (if you don’t have cooked quinoa already – use this blog post for details on how to cook fluffy quinoa). Add the spices at this time – salt, basil, sage, rosemary, and cinnamon. Mix to combine.
5. Once eggplants have roasted in the oven – remove, flip them over, and stuff with the quinoa/mushroom/vegetable mix.
6. You can serve them just like this or if you want to take it one step further you can make a quick oil free simple cashew sauce to drizzle on top by blending cashews, garlic, miso, water and salt. Drizzle on top and serve. Enjoy!