If you are looking for a great gluten free pizza recipe that doesn’t require much work with crust then this recipe is what you need! Eggplant serves as a flavorful and delicious pizza base with tomato pizza sauce, basil, and Irish cheddar cheese as toppings. Goes great with a side of healthy mashed potatoes or breaded pork chops (gluten-free).
If you are on a low-carb diet and want to have some bread, I got you! Here is a recipe for a super low-carb almond bread you can make within 1.5 hours!
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Flavor. Salty roasted eggplant pairs beautifully with sour garlicky pizza sauce, fresh basil, and strong Irish cheddar cheese. If you are a fan of eggplant, check out my eggplant pasta sauce as well.
- Texture. Eggplant melts in your mouth and the skins are so soft that you don’t need to put any extra effort into breaking or chewing them.
- Easy to make. The whole dish comes together in less than one hour, yet, looks like it took you two! Gluten-free savory tray-bake recipes are very easy to make and they taste delicious.
- A great appetizer. Perfect snack for a tailgate party!
How to Make Eggplant Less Bitter?
Rub your eggplant slices with salt and leave them on a cooling rack for about 30 minutes. Liquids will start coming out of the eggplant which will decrease the bitterness of the end result.
However, if your eggplant has black seeds it means that you should rather get yourself some fresh eggplant as the one with black seeds is nonredeemable and will be bitter no matter what you do.
Ingredients
Tomatoes - you can use homemade marinara in place of crushed tomatoes.
Cheddar - you can substitute the cheese for Parmesan or Grana Padano.
Basil - it is best to use fresh basil but you can use dried basil if you only have that.
Eggplant - if your eggplant has black seeds, it might be a bit too old and bitter. Use fresh eggplant for the best results.
Substitutes and Swaps
Vegan Version
Substitute cheese for vegan cheese!
Dairy Free Version
Substitute cheese for vegan cheese.
Tomato Pizza Sauce
You can make any other pizza sauce that you like! Use pesto, garlic with olive oil, and you can even try mayo. However, I haven’t tried making this recipe with other pizza sauces.
Toppings
If you want to upgrade your eggplant pizza, try other toppings like sausage, salami, olives, mushrooms, and other ingredients you really like on your regular pizza!
Step-by-step instructions
Step 1. First, you need to get your eggplant pizza crust ready! All you need to do is to slice the eggplant into 1-1.5cm thick round slices and rub them with salt.
Place the eggplant slices onto a cooling rack and let them sweat for about 30 minutes. The liquid will start coming out of the eggplant which you will need to wipe with a kitchen towel once 30 minutes are up.
Extra salt is also going to be wiped away along with the water! So, don’t be scared to salt your eggplant abundantly for this stage.
Step 2. Place the canned tomatoes, oregano, roughly chopped garlic, and olive oil into a bowl and puree it with a stick blender (or use a stand-alone blender). Once all ingredients are pureed and incorporated your delicious pizza sauce is ready!
Step 3. While your eggplant is still sweating you can chop the fresh basil and grate the cheese. Once done, set aside.
Tip: use a salad spinner to dry off the basil leaves after washing them.
Step 4. Once the eggplant is done sweating and you wiped off the water with salt, place the eggplant onto a greased sheet pan and rub it with olive oil. Sprinkle some oregano onto each slice and bake the eggplant at 400F/200C for about 15 minutes.
Once done, top the eggplant slices with the tomato pizza sauce, chopped basil, and cheddar. Switch the oven to broil and place the eggplant back for another 5 minutes.
When the cheese has completely melted you know your eggplant pizza is done! Let the eggplant pizza bites cool and enjoy them right away!
Expert Tips
- Don’t cut your eggplant too thin or the slices won’t hold at the end. If you are not sure, rather go for a thicker slice.
- Be generous with the eggplant pizza toppings. The more sauce, oregano, basil, and cheese, the better!
- Don’t skip the sweating step. If your eggplant has too much liquid it will become mushy and take away from the experience!
- In the original eggplant pizza by Julia Child she used mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses for the topping. In my version, I use Irish Cheddar but you are welcome to try other types of cheeses!
- You can try making this eggplant pizza in an air fryer! An air fryer will take more time than an oven because an air fryer simply doesn’t fit as much. Also, the air fryer won’t give you the same roasting and churn as the oven would but if you really want to use the air fryer for this recipe do let us know how it turned out!
Frequently Asked Questions
You don’t need to peel eggplant for this recipe. The skin is going to soften during the baking process and will be very easy to chew!
Yes, absolutely!
Eggplant is rather low in carbs! For comparison, 1 pound of eggplant contains fewer carbs than 2 slices of bread.
More recipes to try!
📖 Recipe
Mini Eggplant Pizzas
Ingredients
For Pizza Crust
- 2 medium-large eggplants
- salt to taste
- 2 tablespoon olive oil for rubbing onto the eggplant slices
- 3 tablespoon oregano to slightly cover each eggplant slice
Tomato Sauce
- 240 grams (⅔ of a13 ounce can) tomatoes crushed/whole/chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon salt
Toppings
- tomato sauce ingredients above
- 1 cup grated cheese cheddar/parmesan
- ⅓ cup fresh basil add more to taste
Instructions
- First, you need to get your eggplant pizza crust ready! All you need to do is to slice the eggplant into 1-1.5cm thick round slices and rub them with salt. Place the eggplant slices onto a cooling rack and let them sweat for about 30 minutes. The liquid will start coming out of the eggplant which you will need to wipe with a kitchen towel once 30 minutes are up. Extra salt is also going to be wiped away along with the water! So, don’t be scared to salt your eggplant abundantly for this stage.
- Place the canned tomatoes, oregano, roughly chopped garlic, and olive oil into a bowl and puree it with a stick blender (or use a stand-alone blender). Once all ingredients are pureed and incorporated your delicious pizza sauce is ready!
- While your eggplant is still sweating you can chop the fresh basil and grate the cheese. Once done, set aside.
- Once the eggplant is done sweating and you wiped off the water with salt, place the eggplant onto a greased sheet pan and rub it with olive oil. Sprinkle some oregano onto each slice and bake the eggplant at 400F/200C for about 15 minutes. Once done, top the eggplant slices with the tomato pizza sauce, chopped basil, and cheddar on top. Switch the oven to broil and place the eggplant back for another 5 minutes. When the cheese has completely melted you know your eggplant pizza is done! Let the eggplant pizza bites cool and enjoy them right away!
Notes
Nutrition
Did you like this crustless gluten-free mini-pizza recipe? You might also like my collection of the best gluten-free pizza crusts!
Jessica says
Seems so easy to make! I love eggplant. This will be my next recipe on the list!
Mary says
This eggplant does not seem to be low sodium since it has salt added. I thought these recipes were low sodium. Kind of misleading. Canned tomatoes have a lot of salt.