Recipe trial

What: Pork-stuffed eggplants with radicchio salad

From: latest issue of Mindfood magazine, page 128

Ease factor: Pretty easy. One baking dish, one bowl. I did also break out the stick blender to make breadcrumbs, but that was 2 minutes, max. You have to bake the eggplants first, scoop out the flesh, add it to the pork mix and re-fill the eggplants, then bake again.

Time: just under an hour. Not bad for a Monday night.

Value: approx $14 for the ingredients for two, with variations as below.

What I liked: a really tasty combo of flavours - savoury pork mince, creamy eggplant flesh, parmesan, feta, herbs and tomato sauce.

What I did differently: I used spray oil instead of brushing / drizzling. There's no way you need 1/3 cup oil here. I used a puréed can of tomatoes instead of passata (that's just what I had). I used gluten-free whole grain bread for the crumbs instead of sourdough. I used half haloumi and half feta (to use up a stray bit of haloumi in the fridge). And I didn't make the salad - instead I did a salad of broccoli, rocket, mint, lemon and balsamic glaze.

What I'll do next time: make a bit more sauce. And try the radicchio salad.

Sandy's verdict: "Very tasty" was the comment from SM. Yes, would eat this again.

Overall: Excellent - a lovely start to the week, and the recipe works as it is written. Nice one, Mindfood!