Paleo Eggplant Lasagna/Shepherds Pie

Last week I invited my girlfriend over for dinner. I didn’t have much in my fridge, but had eggplant, veggies and ground lamb and thought I would to try my hand at a lasagne. After many searches online for an eggplant lasagne, the only thing I took away from it was how to prepare the eggplant, and that was mainly because I was too lazy to read the recipes (you will know why when you read the steps below, however, making the recipe is worth it!). So with the ingredients I had at home, I came up with this beauty. The recipe below is written in steps because this recipe is a little bit labour intensive. Lastly, I also call this a Sheperds pie after a debate with my boyfriend. He said it looked more like a pie than a lasagne with the sweet potatoe on top, hence the two names. See below for recipe.

One piece of crucial advice, precut, mince, and peel everything before starting. It will make the cooking part a lot more enjoyable since there are many steps involved.

Prep time: 30 minutes

Bake time: 35 minutes

Serves: 4

“Pasta” Layer	Veggies	Meat Layer	Top Layer (Optional)
2 eggplants, sliced Salt Pepper Olive Oil 1 small can of tomatoe paste	1 medium red onion, diced 1 yellow pepper (or really any colour), diced 2 cloves garlic, minced ½ pack mushrooms, sliced 1 zucchini, cubed Sprinkle of Salt, to sweat onions 1 tbs maple syrup (used when mixing veggies and meat together) 1 tbs coconut oil (or olive oil)	1 pound of ground lamb (or any ground meat of your choice) 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 tsp dried oregano 2 tsp dried basil 2 tsp fresh thyme (dried ok too) 1 tsp dehydrated onion Salt, to taste Pepper, to taste Sprinkle of chili flakes, to taste	1 sweet potatoe, peeled and diced This layer is optional. If you want to make the Paleo Shepherds Pie version, add this layer.

Directions:

“Pasta Layer”

- Preheat oven to 350F.

- Slice eggplant in even medium size slices (if you have a mandolin even better).

- Season eggplant slices with salt and pepper.

- Place on parchment paper on cookie sheet, 
do not overlap.
- Brush eggplant with olive oil on both sides.

- Bake for 20 minutes, flipping midway through. Should be slightly browned. Cook more if necessary.

- Set aside and turn oven up to 400F so it is ready when it is time to cook the lasagne.

Top Layer (Optional)

- Turn stovetop burner to high and place a pot with water 75% full. Bring water to a boil.

- Peel sweet potatoe and dice. Add to boiling water.

- Boil until potatoes are soft enough to mash up.

- Drain. Transfer to a bowl, and mix with salt, pepper and coconut oil.

- Set aside.

Veggies

- Turn stovetop burner to medium heat and place pan on burner.

- Add 1 tbs of coconut oil to pan and melt.

- Add garlic and sautee until it is light brown.

- Add red onion and yellow pepper, sprinkle with salt to allow the onion to sweat (get soft), and stir fry until veggies are soft.

- Once softened, add mushroom and zucchini and cook until soft (should only take approx 3-5 minutes).

- Once veggies are done, transfer to a bowl, and use the pan for the meat.

Meat Layer

- Keep burner at medium heat, take ground lamb and dump in the middle of the pan (no oil required!).

- Cook the meat by working in quarters. Break apart a quarter of the meat with a spatula, and cook it separately until cooked through. Then work with the remaining quarters until done. This prevents that pool of water forming at the bottom of pan and having to dump it out at the end.

- Once cooked, add in veggie mixture and mix thoroughly.
- Add in all seasonings (garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, dehydrated onion, salt, pepper and chili flakes). Mix thoroughly again.

- Add maple syrup and mix through.
- Adjust seasonings to taste.
- Turn off burner, it is time to assemble!

Assemble Lasagne

- Take a baking dish and brush a thin layer of olive oil to bottom of pan.

- Place zucchini at bottom of pan, by covering the entire bottom (you should overlap a little here).

- Spoon tomatoe paste on top of eggplant (put as much or as little as you like).

- Spoon meat and veggie mixture on top of tomatoe paste. Put as much or as little as you like depending on how many layers you can get with the eggplant. Press down to compress it (don’t murder it though).

- Repeat until you run out of ingredients to layer.

- Spoon sweet potatoe mixture on top of final layer and even out (it does not matter if you have eggplant or meat as your final layer before the potatoe mixture (if you choose to use it)). 

- Pop in oven which should be at 400F and bake for 30 minutes. Broil for 3-5 minutes at end to make top a little firm.

- Pull out of oven and enjoy!

Serve with a side salad.