Baked Eggplant Stuffed with Red Lentil Hummus Recipe

Baked Eggplant Stuffed with Red Lentil Hummus Recipe is a mouth-watering recipe that you must try for your special meal on weekends. The eggplant/Aubergine is baked in the oven with a good drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper and topped with a delicious red lentil and roasted carrot hummus and finally topped with garlicky Greek yogurt and spicy toasted almond and walnut crumble for the crunch.   Brinjal (Baingan / Eggplant), Salt and Pepper, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Parmesan cheese, Mint Leaves (Pudina), Carrot (Gajjar), Masoor Dal (Whole), Garlic, Cumin seeds (Jeera), Lemon, Salt, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Onion, Garlic, Butter (Salted), Walnuts, Whole Almonds (Badam), Red Chilli flakes, Dried oregano, Paprika powder, Sugar, Salt, Hung Curd (Greek Yogurt), Garlic, Lemon juice   2 Brinjal (Baingan / Eggplant) , cut into three long slices Salt and Pepper , to taste Extra Virgin Olive Oil , for cooking 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese Mint Leaves (Pudina) , for garnish For the Red lentil Hummus 2 Carrot (Gajjar) , finely chopped 1/2 cup Masoor Dal (Whole) , soaked for 2 hours 4 cloves Garlic 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera) 1 Lemon , juice from it Salt , to taste 5 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil For the Crumble 1 Onion , finely chopped 2 cloves Garlic , finely chopped 1 tablespoon Butter (Salted) 10 Walnuts 10 Whole Almonds (Badam) 1 teaspoon Red Chilli flakes 2 teaspoons Dried oregano 1-1/2 teaspoon Paprika powder 1 teaspoon Sugar Salt , to taste For the Garlic Greek yogurt 1 cup Hung Curd (Greek Yogurt) 4 cloves Garlic , minced 1 Lemon juice     20   45     To begin making the Baked Eggplant with Red Lentil Hummus Recipe, the first step is to make the red lentil hummus filling. Ensure the masoor dal is soaked for at least couple of hours. This helps in faster cooking of the red lentil.Pressure cook the soaked masoor dal with 1 cup of water and pressure cook for at least 5 to 6 whistles. Once done, allow the pressure to release naturally.Once the pressure releases, drain out any excess water and keep aside. We can use this water to adjust the consistency of the red lentil hummus later.Cut eggplant lengthwise in half. Scoop out centres flesh of the eggplant, leaving 1/4-inch-thick pulp around the shell.Sprinkle salt and pepper on the eggplant shell and keep it aside in a colander. This will moisten the eggplant and make it sweat a little before it goes into the oven. Let the eggplant rest for about 10 minutes.Chop the eggplant pulp that we removed and keep aside. We will be adding this to the Lentil Hummus mixture.Pre heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius for 10 minutes and keep it ready.Heat oil in a pan over medium heat; add the carrots, sprinkle a little salt. You can sprinkle with some salt and roast the carrots to fasten the cooking process. Keep aside and allow it to cool.In the same pan; heat a little more oil. Add the chopped eggplant pulp, sprinkle salt and roast the eggplant in the pan until soft. Cover the pan to fasten the cooking process of the eggplant. Once done, turn off the heat and allow it to cool.Once done, add the cooked masoor dal, roasted carrots, roasted eggplant, cumin seeds, lemon juice, garlic and salt into a mixer and blend to a coarse mixture. This is now the red lentil hummus.Stir in a tablespoon of olive oil into the red lentil hummus. Give it a taste and adjust the salt and seasonings according to taste.Now the final step is to bake the eggplant. Cut strips of a foil large enough to hold one eggplant half. We will be using the foil to wrap the eggplant. Place the eggplant halves on centre of each of the foils and fill it with the red lentil hummus. Loosely wrap the eggplant with the foil ensuring it is not tight, and there is enough circulation to steam cook the eggplant.Grill the Stuffed Eggplant for about 20 minutes until the eggplant shells are soft. Once done, you can open the foil and optionally sprinkle parmesan cheese and bake it open until the cheese melts just a bit.Once done, remove from the oven and place the baked eggplants on a serving platter. While the eggplant is baking in the oven, we can make the crumble and the garlic yogurt.