I have been in a food rut. Every week, I start off intending to eat healthy. A new bottle of homemade lemon dressing gets added to the refrigerator. A couple of boxes of crisp salad mix stacked, and a drawer of fresh veggies is at my fingertips, so I make healthier choices throughout the week. Now whether or not that’s actually executed is a whole different story. Wanna know what really happens come Tuesday? I’m using veggies and serving salad, but the main course is usually pasta with protein, or I’m serving whatever we’re having with more rice than salad. It doesn’t help that the weather here has been dreary for weeks. I think it was still 2019 the last time I saw the sun out. And with gross grey weather, all I want to eat is comfort food for dinner. Kick the box of spring mix to the back of the refrigerator and hope that it lives to see another day. So you can see why I desperately needed these low carb eggplant lasagna roll ups. It’s comfort food but it’s also got a serving or two of veggies wrapped and smothered all over the cheese and meat, and guess what? I actually craved a salad on the side to help lighten and brighten everything up.
Besides the apparent reason of being low carb, I love making eggplant lasagna roll ups because it’s a more relaxed and much more weeknight-friendly alternative to the labor-intensive traditional pasta, ricotta, and meat lasagna. My trick to making eggplant lasagna roll ups quicker is using store-bought marinara and keeping the chopping to a minimum. Other than a couple of herbs and the eggplant itself, there isn’t much prep work involved for this recipe. The best part is, you can make the meat mixture for this recipe a day or two ahead of time, and when you’re ready to serve, roll up the eggplant sheets, cover with sauce and cheese and bake until it’s golden and bubbly.
Eggplant lasagna rolls ups are thin slices of eggplant that we wrap with a quick but traditional lasagna filling. Then we place the roll ups in a baking dish with marinara on the bottom and a little on top. Finally, you’ll cover it with a sprinkling of cheese because even if it’s eggplant lasagna, what is it without cheese?
a large eggplant (or two small ones) olive oil lean ground beef (or turkey or chicken) tomato paste seasonings (garlic powder, onion powder, etc.) ricotta cheese shredded mozzarella grated parmesan chopped herbs an egg yolk marinara sauce
Do you have a recipe for marinara that I can use when I make eggplant lasagna roll ups?
I do have a slow cooker marinara recipe that I shared years ago that’s definitely delicious and would well for this recipe. In recent years, I’ve started using my homemade arrabbiata sauce in place of the marinara, and it is so so good that way. Do give it a try! It freezes beautifully so you could make it ahead and use it for this (or other recipes) as needed.
Can you make the meat mixture for eggplant lasagna roll ups ahead of time?
Yes, you could even make the meat portion of this recipe a day or two ahead of time. That way, all that’s left to do the day you want to serve this is thinly slice the eggplants, stuff, roll, top with sauce and cheese, and bake!
Do eggplant lasagna roll ups reheat well?
My experience has been that they do reheat well. I usually remove leftovers from the refrigerator about 20-30 minutes before reheating. It helps if you reheat in smaller portions than heating the whole thing up at once in the microwave. Smaller portions tend to reheat more evenly than a large tray of food. Meaty, hearty, and filling and totally keeping you on track because the eggplant ‘sheets’ we roll the lasagna up in make it so delicious!
