Low Carb Eggplant Zucchini Parmigiana: an old-time Italian classic transformed and ketofied to reduce carbs, but still yummy!
The classic Parmigiana is an Italian favourite and extremely well-known dish. I am sure that Italian foodies will cringe at my ketofication. But a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do to make her favourite recipes keto-friendly, right? And so I have.
To make a Classic Parmigiana you use aubergines (eggplants) that you need to coat in batter and deep-fry. I’ve used aubergines together with courgettes (zucchini) because the latter contains fewer carbs. Instead of coating them in batter and frying them, which is an unhealthy way of eating veggies, I boiled them for a few minutes.
My low carb eggplant zucchini parmigiana doesn’t even require you to salt each aubergine slice. I always used to hate that process because it takes long and it’s really tedious: slicing, sprinkling salt all over, letting the bitter juices drip out, rinsing and drying each slice. It takes forever and there is so much washing up involved! By boiling instead of frying, there is no need for any of it. Just slice, put in salted water and boil for 5 minutes. Much simpler! 
I used round zucchini fresh from my garden. These round babies taste the same as their usual oblong cousins, but have the added advantage that slices are bigger and therefore perfect for this dish.
A Parmigiana that’s really easy to make and tastes amazing!
If you’ve been reading any of my other posts, you already know that I like things simple but tasty. This dish is no exception. What makes it stand out is my tomato sauce. I’ve seen plenty of recipes for Parmigiana that simply use passata (sieved tomatoes) straight from the bottle and onto the aubergines. That’s a sure way to make the dish taste bland and unappealing. Not this recipe! If you read on you’ll discover how to make a really delicious tomato sauce, in 5 minutes, with some truly healthy ingredients: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper.
You can serve this Parmigiana with any white or red meat. It goes well with pretty much everything. I chose to serve mine with some lovely zero carbs skinless pork sausages on the day I made it and with grilled chicken next day. Did I tell you that my Low Carb Eggplant Zucchini Parmigiana tastes even better re-heated?
How to make Low Carb Eggplant Zucchini Parmigiana the queenketo way.
4 easy steps are required:
- Slice and boil eggplants and zucchini.
- Make the tomato sauce.
- Create layers with veggies, then tomato sauce, then cheese.
- Bake!
No faffing. No need to use loads of frying oil. No greasy pans. No waiting. A few minutes’ cooking and it’s all ready for layering into a baking dish. 30 minutes in the oven and it’s done. Probably the best Parmigiana you’ve ever tasted and great as a keto accompaniment for any type of meat you may want to serve.
Enjoy!
- Yield: 6
- Serving: ⅙
- Calories: 308
- Fat: 20g
- Net Carbs: 11g
- Protein: 16.5g
- 800g eggplants (aubergines)
- 400g zucchini (courgettes)
- 700g tomato passata (sieved tomatoes)
- 250g shredded Emmental or mozzarella or similar (packaged)
- 30g grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
- 2 handfuls coarse Himalayan pink salt (U.S. option HERE)
- splash of extra virgin olive oil (U.S. option HERE)
- 20g butter
- 1 garlic clove (minced)
- ¼ shallot (minced)
- ¼ tsp organic broth granules
- ¼ tsp fine Himalayan pink salt (U.S. option HERE)
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp paprika
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- small pinch of cloves
- handful of fresh or frozen parsley
- 100ml water
- top and tail veggies, then slice them about 1 cm thick.
- place veggie slices in a big pot and cover with water, add coarse salt and bring to the boil.
- cook for 5 minutes and drain in a large colander.
- in a medium pan, sauté garlic and shallot in olive oil and butter for 1 minute.
- add passata, water, salt, broth granules and all spices.
- gently simmer for 5 minutes, then turn off heat and stir in parsley.
- pre-heat oven to 180ºC fan (170ºC static).
- in a greased ovenproof baking dish, place one layer of veggies, add ⅓ of tomato sauce and ½ of Emmental, repeat twice more.
- sprinkle Parmesan on top and bake for 30mins until golden and bubbly.
- serve with a good sprinkle of nutritional yeast for an extra B vitamin boost.
Metric kitchen scales are an inexpensive yet invaluable gadget to ensure accurate measurement of ingredients. Store them upright in a cupboard or over your worktop and they'll only take up a tiny bit of space. Click HERE for the ones I use. For U.S. option click HERE.
I’m going to try this your way as I’ve faffed with sliced aubergines brushed individually and baked in oven beforehand and your version is much simpler! I’m interested in where you get the no carb sausages though…thanks
Hi Margaret, I buy zero carb sausages from my local butcher, who makes them without fillers for me. If you have an Italian deli near you, it’s worth checking it out, as Italian packaged sausages are usually zero carbs too.