Vegan Eggplant Parmesan
Vegan Eggplant Parmesan – a comforting and cheese vegan dish! Eggplant gets layered with loaded tomato sauce & creamy vegan mozzarella sauce.
May I introduce you to my new favorite vegan dish. It’s creamy and cheesy and freaking delicious.
The creamy sauce is made with cashews and high powdered blender. And the tomato sauce is a doctored up store-bought jar of marinara.
Do you leave the skin on eggplant?
I do leave the skin on eggplant when I make this recipe. Mainly because it’s easier that way. But you can peel the skin if you prefer the skin removed.
Do you need to salt the eggplant before making vegan eggplant parmesan?
I highly recommend salting the eggplant before cooking with it. I salt it and then put it in a strainer + a bowl underneath to catch all the water that runs off of it.
The salt helps the eggplant release some of its water before baking rather than in your casserole dish. This is a super cool trick I learned from a chef a few years ago and it works like magic. No one wants eggplant parmesan soup.
What to serve this with?
This artisan bread would be delicious!
Along with grilled zucchini, roasted broccolini, or sauteed green beans!
And maybe a simple salad with lemon vinaigrette.
Vegan Eggplant Parmesan
Ingredients
- 3 medium eggplants about 3 1/2 pounds, sliced into 1/4-inch thick rounds
- Sea salt
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil plus extra for brushing
For the marinara sauce:
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 2 small zucchini and or summer squash chopped
- 2 roasted red bell peppers chopped
- 1 28 ounce jar vegan tomato sauce (such as Rao’s)
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil leaves chopped
- 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
- 2 Tablespoons bread crumbs for sprinkling
For the Mozzarella sauce:
- 3/4 cups raw cashews*
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoons lemon juices
- 3/4 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 Tablespoon chopped fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to broil, set to high. Lightly grease 2 large baking sheets.
- Generously salt the eggplant and place in a strainer. Let sit and sweat for about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the tomato sauce by heating oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until soft and lightly browned. Add garlic and zucchini and let cook for 1 minute. Add roasted red bell peppers, tomato sauce, thyme, oregano, basil, balsamic vinegar, and granulated sugar. Cook and stir for a few more minutes.
- Wipe or dab the eggplant with paper towels to remove excess moisture. Arrange the eggplant on the baking sheet and brush with oil. Broil for 4 to 6 minutes until browned on top.
- While eggplant is broiling, make the mozzarella sauce.
- In a blender, combine cashews and water. Blend on high until very smooth, about 2 minutes. Add lemon juice, salt, garlic onion powder, and corn starch
- Lower the oven temperature to 350F degrees. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch pan.
To assemble the casserole:
- Arrange half of the eggplant slices, overlapping the slices, in the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of bread crumbs. Layer half of the cooked quinoa, half the tomato sauce, and half of the mozzarella sauce on top of the bread crumbs. Repeat the layers. Bake, uncovered for 20-30 minutes, until hot and bubbly. Top with fresh basil and serve.
Notes
Excellent.. Big hit with my vegan son. I made some slight changes. I could not find raw cashews alone and so bought combination of raw cashews, walnuts & macademia nuts which I soaked overnight. I roasted my own peppers and then used with the rest of the recipe. One big discrepancy though is the prep time takes way more time than indicated. Definitely a keeper recipe.
This recipe was a big hit with my son who is vegan. I could not find raw cashews and so bought organic raw combination of cashews, walnuts and macademia nuts which I soaked overnight. I also soaked the eggplant slices overnight in paper towels, then wrapped them in cloth dish towels to get out remaining water until ready to cook them. I roasted my own bell peppers that I had on hand using small amount of the spices/herbs called for in the recipe. Since my son is vegan, I used whole wheat panko bread crumbs. Recipe turned out delicious. Will use again in future.
Do you know if this recipe freezes well?
This is MY go-to recipe to impress omnivore friends and family. My first potluck, after turning vegan, I made this and it disappeared in minutes ! Everybody wanted to have the recipe ! It is wonderful and my chosen Christmas dish this pandemic year with my sister. I will forever make this dish and thank you sooooo much for sharing this ! It is game changing !
Did you ever recieve a reply to your question re freezing? 🙂
This recipe made it into the favorites. Whole family loved it!
I have been meal prepping vegan meals once a week on Sundays, and prepped this recipe for the week a few days ago. Between myself and my partner, the portions did not make it past Wednesday. I love reading other’s revisions on recipes but there was none for this recipe, so here were mine: I simmered the pasta sauce (added lots of garlic of course!) for about 30 minutes to really integrate the flavours. I also added an extra tablespoon of lemon juice and extra pinch of salt to the cashew sauce for that extra zingy cheesy kick. Once baked, I topped it with some vegan parmesan cheese (ground almonds with nutritional yeast and salt mixed in. The best shaky parm texture!). This is the most PERFECT vegan Italian comfort food!! I will be making this over and over again.
Can I just use cashew milk as a shortcut to soaking, boiling, blending raw cashews?
Can you make this dish in advance.? This was so delicious I was thinking of making it at least twice for company in the next few weeks. I have made cashew cheese before but this recipe was perfect.
Very good. Did it with no oil and cut some of my eggplant too thick, but was delicious.
This was an absolutely AMAZING dish! My whole family loved it! When I was building the layers before baking, I forgot to add the mozzarella (cashew ) sauce so ended up putting the entire mozzarella part as a thick top layer. It was delicious! I am going to prepare it that way intentionally when I prepare it again.
So happy you loved it!!!
Did anyone have any luck freezing this?
I haven’t tried it! But I would think it’s good to freeze! Cover in foil and place in the freeze. When you’re ready to eat it, take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge or on the counter until it’s completely thawed. Or you can also bake it while it’s frozen. Remove the foil and reheat in a 400 degree oven until heated through.
This is an amazing recipe. I was looking for something new to make for company and decided to make a smaller version of it to test on my husband first. Oh wow – it was so delicious! Every time I think there are no more exceptional recipes to be discovered, along comes one like this. Thank you so much for putting it in online. Now I can’t wait to have those guests. Oh, by the way, I served it with a favourite broccoli salad and some hot sour dough bread. Perfect! Next I’m going to try your vegan scalloped potatoes with sausages. If they’re half as good as as the Eggplant Parmesan, they will be great for everyone but especially the guests who, for some reason, still don’t think a vegan meal can fill them up. Thanks again, you’ve really inspired me to try more new recipes.