Meatless Monday with Eggplant Mozzarella Melt and Mediterranean Garbanzo Salad

Hello and welcome (back) to the Miratel blog and thank you for joining us for another Meatless Monday vegetarian recipe share. The Meatless Monday pledge aims to reduce meat consumption 15% by eliminating it just one day per week to preserve personal and planetary health. Miratel supports this great initiative and includes it as part of its  CSR business strategies to spread awareness of the impact of food choices on our environment.

Tonight for dinner we’re making an eggplant and mozzarella melt that comes by way of the Martha Stewart kitchens at Everyday Food. Along side the melts we’ll serve a Mediterranean garbanzo salad, which comes courtesy of Whole Foods Market.

Image courtesy of marthastewart.com/

Eggplant and Mozzarella Melt Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3/4 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
• Olive oil, for baking sheet
• 1 medium eggplant (about 1 pound), sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
• 1 loaf (8 ounces) soft Italian bread
• 2 cups store-bought (or homemade) tomato sauce
• 8 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. In a shallow bowl, lightly beat eggs with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Spread breadcrumbs in a pie plate or shallow bowl.
2.  Oil a rimmed baking sheet. Dip eggplant rounds in egg, then dredge in breadcrumbs, turning to coat completely; transfer to prepared baking sheet. Bake (without turning) until golden and tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
3.  Meanwhile, split bread lengthwise, and place cut side up on another baking sheet; press gently in centers to create a well. Layer both halves with tomato sauce, eggplant, and cheese. Bake until cheese is browned in spots, 6 to 8 minutes.
   

   Image courtesy of wholefoodsmarket.com/

Mediterranean garbanzo salad Ingredients

• 5 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 small zucchini or yellow squash, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
• 1/2 (15-ounce) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
• 4 pitted black olives, such as Kalamata, halved
• 2 tablespoons roughly chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon prepared balsamic vinaigrette or Italian dressing
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Ground black pepper to taste
• 2 or 3 lettuce leaves, torn into large bite-size pieces

Directions

1. Toss together all ingredients, except lettuce, in a large bowl. Arrange lettuce on a dinner plate and top with bean mixture.

The eggplant and mozzarella melt recipe will yield four servings, and takes twenty minutes to prepare and the total cooking time is fifty minutes. The Mediterranean garbanzo salad serves one as a main and two as a side dish but can be easily adjusted as needed. This dish does not require any cooking so it’s easy to whip up on a week night. Both of these dishes would work well any day of the week and even as part of a summer buffet table or potluck.

If you haven’t already, we encourage you to visit the Meatless Monday website and join us in taking the Meatless Monday pledge today. Spread the word at home and at work to promote CSR business initiatives and make your green call centre, office, factory, shop, restaurant or salon even greener.

Enjoy!

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.