Guilt-Free Eggplant Pizza with @Sanne Vloet

Instructions

1. Set the oven to grill mode on the highest heat. For our oven, it is 280 C (535 F), and place a wire rack on the second shelf from the top.
2. Take two big eggplants and make 3-4 cracks with a knife so they won’t explode in the oven.
3. Place the eggplants on a tray and put them in the oven. Cook about 20-25 minutes until they are soft. Don’t forget to flip them to other sides every 10 minutes.
4. When your eggplants are ready, take them out from the oven and cover them with a kitchen towel. Let them have a rest for 5 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, for the pizza sauce, put 5 teaspoons of tomato puree in a small bowl. Add 2 pinches of garlic powder, 1 pinch of salt, 1 pinch of black pepper, and ½ pinch of red pepper flakes.
6. To break the tomato’s bitterness, add ½ pinch of granulated sugar and mix.
7. To make a pizza base cut the eggplant longwise and don’t cut the bottom side.
8. Open the eggplants like a boat and drop the water if there is.
9. To make inside easy to eat, shred the inside of the eggplant with a little spoon.
10. Sprinkle salt to taste and spread the pizza sauce into eggplants.
11. Add a handful of shredded kaşar cheese to each eggplant. Don’t forget to spare some cheese for the top. You can use any cheese, like Emmental or mozzarella but younger and melting cheese are better options.
12. Now it is time for toppings, remember you can garnish your pizza with your favorite ingredients.
13. Here is what we put in our pizzas with Sanne; for the first pizza, put thinly sliced half mushroom, 2-3 sliced green olives, and half of the sliced sweet kapia pepper. Sprinkle some oregano. To finish, a teaspoon of pizza sauce and a teaspoon of shredded kasar cheese
14. For the second one 2 slices of red onions, 3 slices of sucuk which is a Turkish spiced cured meat. You can use pepperoni or chorizo as well.
15. Add thinly sliced half of a mushroom and 2-3 sliced black olives. Add a little more shredded kasar on top and sprinkle red pepper flakes as much as you want. You can add pizza sauce to this one as well.
16. Grill for another extra 5 minutes. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil after you take out from the oven. Garnish with fresh basil. Your Turkish-influenced eggplant pizzas are ready. Enjoy without shame!