Enjoy this delicious and easy vegetarian eggplant dish. The eggplants are browned and cooked briskly with some tomatoes, pungent spices, onions and garbanzo beans and then served with rice/couscous and yoghurt sauce. It is not exactly the perfect fall dish but I still had some eggplants and the weather is still more summery this week. I also added sweet mama squash that complemented the dish nicely and made it more suitable for this ‘going from the summer into the fall’ time period. With the warming spices and the baked squash, it will be a great meal for the entire week. Not only that it suits the weather but it is delicious … honestly my family can’t get enough of it. I might have to go back to the farmers’ market tomorrow to get more eggplants.
RECIPE
Serves 4-5 people
Ingredients
- 2 medium eggplants
- olive oil
- 2 large onions, sliced
- 1 Tbsp graded fresh ginger
- seasoning: 2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp cumin powder, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1 cinnamon stick,
- pinch of saffron (optional)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 large tomatoes or 2 cups canned tomatoes
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1 cup dried garbanzo beans or 1 can (14 oz)
- 1 dried hot pepper or to taste
- salt and pepper
- couscous or rice to serve
- cilantro
Directions
- Garbanzo beans. Soak overnight and cook them for 3 hours. You can use a pressure cooker. They need to be cooked slowly for a long time until they are nice and soft. They can take up liquid after they are cooked so add more water if needed. Add 1 tsp salt when done.
- Preparing the eggplants. Wash and cut eggplants into cubes. Salt them and put them into a colander for 30 minutes to let the liquid drain. Pat dry.
- Frying the eggplants. In a wide skillet, on medium low heat, slowly brown the eggplants in some olive oil for about 20- 30 minutes or until soft. They will not cook any more so make sure they are soft and well cooked before you add it to the sauce. Stir frequently. Make sure they don’t burn. Set aside.
- Caramelize the onions. Brown the sliced onions in a separate dish in oil with care, it takes about 30 minutes. Stir frequently. Set aside.
- Making the sauce. Crumple the saffron between your thumb and index finger and add hot liquid, stir well (optional). Otherwise you can just put whole saffron strains in the dish. Set aside. On medium high heat warm up 1 Tbsp oil and add the ginger for 5 minutes. Then add the paprika, cumin, garlic and stir for 1 minute to activate the spices. Add the chopped tomatoes and the tomato paste and stir well. You can add a little water here too. Cook the tomatoes for about 5 minutes until they have become ‘saucy’. Add the saffron, cinnamon stick, freshly graded nutmeg and hot pepper. Bring to a boil and turn down the heat. Cook for 10 minutes on low medium heat. Add a little water if needed. Add the browned onions, eggplants and garbanzo beans from eariler. Cook for 5 more minutes covered. Let the dish sit for 15 minutes so the flavors can come together. Take out the cinnamon stick and the hot pepper pieces. Add salt and pepper or anything else that needs to be adjusted.
- Serve with cilantro, rice or couscous and yoghurt sauce. I also added some baked sweet mama squash slivers and they nicely complemented each other.
enjoy!
Recipe, photo and text by twincitiesherbs.com.
Twin Cities Herbs 
this sounds so healthy and delicious! Thanks for sharing
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Thank you Jamie! Yes it is delicious. cheers!
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Looks amazing 😄
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Thank you, lillyawesome1!
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My favorite ingredients – chick peas and eggplant…SO GOOD!💕
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Thank you for your comment. Yes we love this recipe too.
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