When you’re home alone and craving more than a simple sandwich, this single serving individual eggplant parmesan recipe is just what you need! A true feast for one.
**This post was updated in 2019 using regular eggplant.
The saving grace of my underperforming garden this year has been the eggplant (eggplant plant?). It’s my first year growing Japanese eggplant, and it’s been a huge success. I’m eternally grateful to this plant for salvaging the remains of my low garden self-esteem, but now, what do I do with all this eggplant?
A conversation with my always insightful friend, Val the other day led me here. Individual eggplant parmesan. At the time I only had 5 small fruits ready for eating (yes, it’s a fruit). The Hubs was out of town, as he often is, so I took this as an excuse to buy myself a tiny casserole dish, and make myself a feast…..for one.
I gotta say, this was one of my most satisfying meals for one. Generally my solo meals include salad or soup, or perhaps even a potato, but this time I really felt like I was eating a feast! Great idea (as always) Val! I don’t know what I would do without you!
As of last week I probably had enough eggplant growing to make a full sized version of this delectable meal. That is, until Olive discovered the plant and I began to find half chewed up eggplants all over the backyard. Time to reinforce the garden fence.
Individual Eggplant Parmesan
Update:
I recently made a batch of these single serving casseroles to stock my freezer for the next few weeks. I love to have the option of just popping something already made into the oven when I get home from a long day at work. Going straight from the freezer to the oven is key for time saving, so make sure you prepare these in an oven safe dish.
For my latest batch I used regular eggplant, and air fried the discs before assembling the servings for freezing. Check out the air fryer notes in the recipe card for that version.
A single eggplant made 4 individual servings, which I wrapped tightly in foil, placed in a ziploc bag, and froze. To reheat; baked covered at 350 degrees for 60-75 minutes until cooked through.
If you give this recipe a try, I’d love to see it! Tag me @betsylife on Facebook or Instagram and I’ll share your creations!
More great meals for one
Eggplant Parmesan For One
When you're home alone and craving more than a simple sandwich, this single serving individual eggplant parmesan recipe is just what you need! A true feast for one.
Ingredients
- 5 small japanese eggplants roughly peeled and cut into 1/2 inch thick strips
- 1 egg beaten
- 1/2 cup seasoned italian breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup pasta sauce
- 1 slice mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese grated
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil for garnish
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees
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Dip each eggplant slice in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs to coat.
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Place eggplant slices on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, flipping once.
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In a small casserole dish, spread several spoonfuls of the pasta sauce so the bottom of the dish is evenly covered.
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Top sauce with eggplant, 1/2 slice mozzarella cheese and 1/2 the parmesan cheese.
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Repeat the layers beginning with sauce and ending with cheese.
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Bake for 20-25 minutes until bubbly.
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Top with fresh basil and serve.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Note: measurements are not exact. It depends on the size of your cooking vessel
AIR FRYER VERSION: After breading the eggplant slices (step 3) place into an air fryer basket in an even layer. Fry at 370 degrees for 8-10 minutes, flip, and continue to fry 4-5 minutes more until golden brown. Cool completely before freezing.
TO FREEZE: Assemble in oven safe dishware. Wrap tightly in foil, place in a ziploc bag, and freeze.
TO REHEAT: bake covered at 350 degrees for 60-75 minutes until cooked through.
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Kate@Diethood says
A delicious meal for one? I’ll take it! In fact, eggplant parmesan is a favorite around here. I have yet to plant eggplant, but I do have zucchini out there! 🙂
madscar says
Uau this is amazing..Love it! Thanks for recipe 🙂
Bob says
I’m a newly divorced man and not a cook. In you recipe tou say one T basil, ok I’ll but basil but does that T represent a teaspoon or a tablespoon? it would help if you used Te and Ta as that would then be easier to understand for us non cooks…How about more of these one serving dishes?
betsy says
Hi Bob. Generally if a T is capitalized, it means tablespoon and if its lower case, then its teaspoon. Your comment made me realize that non-cooks don’t realize this so I’ll definitely be more conscious of it moving forward. Thanks for the great feedback!
susan says
I have never had eggplant, what does it taste like? the recipe looks delish
betsy says
It has kind of an earthy flavor but is a great base for all kinds of seasonings. I love it because of the meaty texture. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Julie Craig says
I just found your site while googling recipes for one! I’m glad I did. I don’t have the Japanese eggplant.. just the regular one ( large bell shaped).. any tips on using that particular variety? TIA
betsy says
Hi Julie
The flavor is the same. You’ll just have to cut it into small enough strips to fit into whatever dish you’ll be baking in. Thanks for stopping by!
cat says
How thick should the strips of eggplant be?
betsy says
about a 1/4 inch thick
D says
Yikes! What would cause this recipe to result in 1100 calories per serving?
betsy says
Agh! There must be a glitch in my recipe plugin. Thank you for alerting me to this. I’ll look into it and fix ASAP
W Jordan says
Don’t understand why there isn’t a place we can pin to Pinterest . I hate printing out and wasting paper and having to Look for paper copy went can look at pin t. Thanks
betsy says
If you hover your cursor over any of the images a pin button should appear. There is also a bar on the left side of the post that has a pin it button that will allow you to post to Pinterest
Lynn Goss says
Where can I find reasonably priced single-serve dishes like you show? My husband drives a truck otr so I’m alone a lot. I don’t need a whole baking set, just some single-serve oven/freezer proof casserole dishes.
betsy says
These are 4 inch ramekins you can buy anywhere. Target, Amazon, any kitchen store. They should be about $3-$4 each. Enjoy!
Barbara Ellis says
If going to freeze, do I cook eggplant before freezing
betsy says
yes. Cook and assemble the entire dish and then freeze.