One-Pan Eggplant & Chickpea Curry

The next time you need something delicious to make with a beautiful eggplant, or you're too tired to make something really involved for dinner, or you just don't want to do a lot of dishes, try this guy out. This is an insanely easy curry that you just pop into the oven so the veggies and chickpeas get all roasty in a garlicky curry paste. So wonderful with a dollop of cool plain yogurt and some toasty naan for wiping your plate clean.

 One-Pan Eggplant and Chickpea Curry

From Food & Wine

• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• Kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
• 1 large onion, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
• One 15-oz can chickpeas, drained
• 1/4 cup finely julienned fresh ginger
• Freshly ground pepper
• One 5-ounce bag baby spinach
• Warm naan and plain yogurt, for serving

Preheat the oven to 425 F. On a work surface, mash the garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt. In a large roasting pan, mix the paste with the curry powder and vegetable oil. Add the eggplant, onion, chickpeas and ginger, season with salt and pepper, and toss well. Spread the vegetables in an even layer and roast for about 30 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the eggplant and onion are tender. Stir in the spinach and roast until just wilted, about 2 minutes. Serve with warm naan and yogurt.

Vegetarian Moussaka

Sometimes I get overly ambitious and attempt to make a "weekend dinner" (you know, one that takes forever to prepare) on, say, a Wednesday night. Fortunately, Joe is more or less all right with eating dinner at 9:00.

This moussaka was probably worth the wait. If you've never had moussaka, it's kind of like the Greek version of eggplant parmesan, though it traditionally has ground meat (often lamb) spread throughout the layers and is topped with a white bechamel-style sauce. Of course, this version is vegetarian, with bulgur standing in for the meat.

Like eggplant parm, moussaka can easily be made healthier by leaving the eggplant slices naked (no breading), making the bechamel with low-fat milk, and going easy on the cheese. Not only is this better for you, but it also really lets the delicious flavor of the eggplant and Greek spices shine through.

Vegetarian Moussaka
From Cooking Light

• 3 peeled eggplants, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices (about 2 1/2 pounds)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• Cooking spray
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup uncooked bulgur
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 cups organic vegetable broth
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
• 14-oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup 1% low-fat milk
• 2 tablespoons finely grated fresh Romano cheese (you can sub Parmesan)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preheat broiler to high. Brush eggplant slices with 1 tablespoon oil. Place half of eggplant on a foil-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray; broil 5 inches from heat for 5 minutes on each side or until browned. Repeat procedure with remaining eggplant. Set eggplant aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add chopped onion to pan; saute 8 minutes. Add garlic; saute 1 minute. Add bulgur; cook 3 minutes or until bulgur is lightly toasted, stirring frequently. Add ground allspice, cinnamon, and cloves; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in vegetable broth, oregano, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add flour; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly with a whisk until well blended. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly with the whisk. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently. Stir in cheese and a pinch of salt. Remove from heat, and cool slightly. Add egg, stirring well with the whisk.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Arrange half of eggplant in an 11x7 (I used 13x9) inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray. Spread the bulgur mixture evenly over eggplant; arrange remaining eggplant over bulgur. Top with milk mixture. Bake for 40 minutes, and remove from oven. Incerase oven temperature to 475 F. Return dish to oven for 4-5 minutes or until the top is browned. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Pickled Peppers & Eggplant

A guest post by the wonderful Joe Fray...

Recently, Becky and I found a fun, delicious hobby. We've begun to pickle. Becky found an article in one of her plethora of food mags with what appeared to be simple pickle recipes. We made a batch of pickled cucumbers and carrots. It took twenty minutes, they were ready the next day, and they were delicious. We got a little more daring and pickled some brussel sprouts and sweet peppers. Both came out perfectly again. After that we were hooked.

I've taken the lead on doing most of the pickling because I get some sort of dorky pleasure out of it, and I'm painstakingly precise in my measurements, often to Becky's annoyance. So, for Christmas Becky got me a pickling recipe book (from which the two recipes below were taken), and our pickling has since reached new and interesting levels. We've pickled onions (excellent with bread and a sharp cheddar), cauliflower (one batch was yellow, the other pink), watermelon rinds (probably won't be making those again), and eggs (surprisingly good, though I need a better method for peeling hard boiled eggs). I've also just started my first batch of fermented pickles (sour through natural fermentation in saltwater rather than from vinegar), but I'll have to update you later on how those turn out.

Pickling is as simple as mixing a fresh or very lightly cooked vegetable with seasoning and vinegar.  That's it. All you need is the ingredients and a jar.  The jars are easy to find; we have a mix of screw top jars from Sur La Table and flip tops from Ikea and the Container Store.

The two recipes below are incredibly easy and are definitely our favorites so far (batch two of the peppers is just about gone).

Refrigerator Pickled Peppers

From The Joy of Pickling

• 1 pound bell peppers, preferably of mixed colors, cut into strips
• Half a celery stalk with leaves, chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons whole fennel seeds
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon pickling salt (a.k.a. fine sea salt) (if using kosher salt, add an extra 1/2 teaspoon -- do not use iodized table salt)

In a large bowl, toss the peppers with the celery, garlic, and fennel. Pack the vegetables and seeds with the bay leaf into a quart sized jar. Combine the water and vinegar, and dissolve the salt in the liquid. Pour the brine over the vegetables. Close and refrigerate the jar. The peppers will be ready in a week. Refrigerated, they will keep well for 6 to 8 weeks. 

Quick Pickled Eggplant with Basil

From The Joy of Pickling

• 1 quart water
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pickling salt (a.k.a. fine sea salt) (if using kosher salt, add an extra 1/2 teaspoon -- do not use iodized table salt)
• 2 medium-large eggplants (about 3 1/4 pounds), cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh basil
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/4 cup olive oil

In a saucepan, bring the water and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil. Add half the eggplant cubes and simmer them for about 5 minutes, until they are tender. Put them in a colander and cook the remaining eggplant cubes in the same way. Add them to the colander and rinse and drain all of the eggplant. In a quart sized jar, mix the cooked eggplant cubes with the vinegar, basil, pepper, garlic, and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt. (There will not be enough liquid in the jar to cover all the eggplant, but that's okay -- just shake the jar around whenever you get a chance.) Cover the jar and refrigerate it for at least 8 hours. The eggplant will keep for about 1 week in the refrigerator. Just before serving, stir in the olive oil.

Eggplant Lentil Chili Mole

I held off on blogging about this dish for a while because I had to think about it. The taste is really different, and it took me a few days of retrospection to decide that it's different in a good way, and that I quite enjoy it.

No surprise here, this dish is from Appetite for Reduction, a lovely vegan cookbook full of healthy recipes that I've been cooking my way through over the past couple weeks. CBS News has apparently called this "the world's most filling vegan dish" -- I'm not sure they've had a whole lot of vegan food based on that conclusion, but I'll grant that it is very filling and delicious to boot. It's a veg chili filled with eggplant that cooks till it's silky-tender; chewy, fiber-packed lentils; and a spice combo that's rounded out with some unsweetened cocoa powder, which really adds depth of flavor.

This would be fantastic with some cornbread on the side -- if you whip some up from a boxed mix, it'll be ready in the time it takes the chili to simmer.

Eggplant Lentil Chili Mole
From Appetite for Reduction

• 2 pounds eggplant, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced medium
• 1 red pepper, diced medium
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon mild chili powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup green lentils, washed
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons agave nectar or maple syrup
• Cilantro for garnish (optional)

Preheat a 4-quart soup pot over medium high heat. Saute onions and bell pepper in oil until translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and saute for another minute, using cooking spray or a splash of water if it's sticking. Mix in chili powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, salt and cinnamon. Add 1/2 cup of the vegetable broth and the cocoa powder; cook for about 1 more minute, while stirring, to dissolve the cocoa.

Add lentils, vegetable broth, diced tomatoes and eggplant. Cover pot and bring to a boil, keeping a close eye. Once it's boiling, lower heat to a simmer and cook for about 40 minutes, until lentils are tender and eggplant is soft. Mix in agave. Taste for salt and seasoning.

Let sit for 10 minutes or so for maximum flavor. Serve garnished with cilantro if you like.

Healthier Eggplant Parm

Sorry for the long hiatus! I could go on about how Thanksgiving happened, and then I had to go to New York for a stupid legal training class, and the holiday season is just so crazy, but I'll stop myself here and say that I have dearly missed you, my (silent but) faithful readers.

I made this a couple weeks ago but am just now posting about it for the aforementioned reasons. Eggplant parmesan is one of those classic vegetarian dishes that everybody loves but is actually really horrible for you due to the frying and the cheese. Fortunately, it's not hard to lighten it up by baking the eggplant slices and using the cheese a bit more judiciously than you otherwise would. Even more fortunately, the dish is still delicious when prepared this way.

Healthier Eggplant Parm

• Cooking spray
• 2/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs, Italian-style
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (or a mix of oregano, basil, marjoram, rosemary, and/or thyme)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 medium raw eggplants
• 3-4 egg whites, lightly beaten
• 3 cups canned tomato sauce
• 1 cup part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray; set aside. Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder in a medium-size bowl; set aside. Remove skin from eggplant and trim off ends; slice eggplant into 1/2-inch-thick slices.
Dip eggplant first into egg whites and then into bread crumb mixture. Bake eggplant on a nonstick cookie sheet until lightly browned, about 20 to 25 minutes, flipping once.

Place a layer of eggplant on bottom of prepared baking dish, then add 1/3 of tomato sauce and 1/3 of mozzarella cheese. Repeat with 2 more layers in same order. Bake until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling, about 10 minutes.

Japanese Grilled Eggplant

So for the blog I usually tend to stick with recipes for complete meals, whether it's an entree, a soup/stew or salad. But I made a great side dish tonight that I had to share.

It's a Japanese-style grilled eggplant that Joe and I both loved. I served it along with the soba noodles with spinach I blogged about a couple weeks ago. They complemented each other perfectly and made a tasty, healthy Asian-inspired vegetarian meal.

Japanese Grilled Eggplant

• 2 large or 4 small eggplants
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
• 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon ginger root, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup scallions, sliced

Preheat an outdoor grill or stove-top grill pan and spray lightly with some cooking spray. Slice the eggplants on the diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick pieces. Grill, turning as needed, until lightly charred and tender, about 7 to 9 minutes. Remove to a serving plate.

In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, vinegar, ginger, and garlic until blended. Drizzle over eggplant and then sprinkle the eggplant with scallions.

Fontina and Roasted Eggplant Pita Pizzas

I'm not entirely sure how to classify this recipe. It's extremely easy, but it's not quick, since it requires 45 minutes of roasting vegetables. However, if you've already got the vegetables roasted -- say, from having this the day before -- making leftovers couldn't be quicker.

One thing is clear, though. This recipe is super delicious, and the way it makes your house smell while the garlic is roasting simply cannot be described. Oh, man. So amazing. It'll make you want to roast garlic every night of the week.

 Fontina and Roasted Eggplant Pita Pizzas

• 1 medium red onion, sliced into thin rounds
• 1 medium eggplant
• 1 bulb (note: not clove) garlic
• Cooking spray
• 2 large wheat pitas, split in half crosswise
• 1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup fontina cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 450 F. Coat a sheet pan with olive oil cooking spray and spread onions on it; set aside. Prick eggplant all over with a fork. Coat garlic bulb with cooking spray; wrap in foil. Roast eggplant (unwrapped) and garlic (wrapped in foil) until very soft, about 45 minutes. Add onion to oven for last 20 minutes of roasting. Remove vegetables from oven and reduce temperature to 400 F.

Peel and mash eggplant; set aside. Squeeze garlic from its skin. Set pita rounds on a baking sheet and spread each with some garlic. Top with tomato sauce, eggplant, fontina and onions. Bake until crisp on the edges, about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Roasted Eggplant and Chickpea Soup

When the weather is cold, I crave two things:

1. Soup.
2. Roasted stuff.

So I was pretty psyched today when Joe made me a roasted eggplant and chickpea soup for dinner. What?!

This recipe is from what I like to call Martha Stewart's "weeknight magazine" -- Everyday Food. They did a whole feature on roasted soups, but I immediately flagged this one for immediate preparation. I'm glad I did, since it's really delicious. Roasting the veggies gives it a nice full flavor, and a swirl of yogurt adds just the right amount of tang. A sprinkle of fragrant fresh oregano tops it all off.

Roasted Eggplant and Chickpea Soup

• 2 medium eggplants, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 small yellow onion, diced medium
• 2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 6 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• Fresh oregano
• Plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 400 F. In a large bowl, toss together eggplants, onion, garlic, and 4 teaspoons oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange in a single layer in a roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet, leaving a wide strip of empty space at one end. In the bowl, toss chickpeas with 2 teaspoons oil. Transfer to empty space on sheet. Roast until eggplant is golden and cooked through and chickpeas are slightly crunchy, about 35 minutes.

Set chickpeas aside. Peel garlic and add to a medium pot, along with eggplant, onion, and broth. Bring mixture to a simmer over medium-high. With a potato masher or back of a wooden spoon, mash some eggplant until soup is thick and chunky. Stir in chickpeas and season to taste with salt and pepper. To serve, top with fresh oregano and plain yogurt.

Thai Coconut Soup

I always love trying new recipes, so I don't usually make the same thing twice unless it's really good. So you should know it's really saying something that I've made this Thai coconut soup more times than I can remember.

This soup recipe comes from my favorite vegetarian cookbook, Linda McCartney On Tour.* Ms. McCartney was an animal rights activist who refused to "eat anything with a face." Her cookbook is fantastic and contains recipes influenced by all sorts of different world cultures and cuisines. I do have to say that I disagree with her choice of name for this recipe -- she calls it "tom yum soup," but it has pretty much zero in common with tom yum (at least as I'm familiar with it). This soup has more in common with tom kha gai, since it has a coconut base, except this is a vegetarian version with lots more veggies. And in my opinion, more deliciousness.

Whatever you want to call it, this soup has lots of wonderful flavors, and like all good soups it tastes even better the next day.

 Thai Coconut Soup

• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1 medium onion, chopped finely
• 1 fresh jalapeno pepper (or other, if your store has interesting types), seeded and minced
• 2 stalks lemongrass (if my store doesn't have it, I sometimes add some lime zest instead)
• 3/4 pound eggplant, cut into half-inch cubes
• One 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes in juice
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• One 14-ounce can of coconut milk
• Cilantro, anywhere from 2 to 4 tablespoons (or none at all)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 to 1 cup cooked jasmine, basmati, or long grain brown rice
• Chopped peanuts, for garnish
  

Heat a large soup pot over medium-high heat and add the oil. When it is hot, add the garlic, onion, jalapeno, and lemongrass stalks (leave them whole, or at least in large enough pieces that you can easily remove them later). Stir-fry for 2 minutes, then add the eggplant and cook for about 4 minutes until it has browned. Stir in the sugar and tomatoes, and mix well. Add the stock, coconut milk, and cilantro (if using). Bring to a simmer, season to taste with salt and pepper, and simmer gently for about 5-10 minutes. Add the rice about 2 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Remove the lemongrass, pour the soup into bowls, and garnish with the chopped peanuts.

*Note: to be distinguished from my favorite vegan cookbook, which is definitely Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. You'll definitely see recipes from that book cropping up on this blog more than once.

Ratatouille's Ratatouille

First things first: I must give credit where credit is due. This wonderful recipe came from one of my very favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. I have made it many times and each time I love it more and more. Huge thanks also go to Joe, who actually assembled and prepared this meal for us to eat tonight. (He has these few weeks off work, and let me tell you, having a house-husband is awesome.)

It should come as no surprise, given my love of Pixar, rodents, and food, that Ratatouille is one of my favorite movies. I simply adore the scene towards the end where the titular rat prepares a beautiful dish of ratatouille -- not the traditional peasant style stew, but a gorgeous haute cuisine version (developed in real life by Thomas Keller). And the food critic is transported and has a revelation and all ends well, of course, since it is a children's movie.

This is pretty much that dish. I don't know if it's exactly how Mr. Keller himself would have prepared it, but it is so intensely flavorful with the fresh vegetables and the thyme and the garlic that I just don't know how it could possibly be any better.

Ratatouille’s Ratatouille

• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
• 1 cup canned tomato puree
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 small eggplant
• 1 smallish zucchini
• 1 smallish yellow squash
• 1 longish red bell pepper
• Few sprigs fresh thyme
• Salt and pepper
• Few tablespoons soft goat cheese, for serving
• Orzo, couscous, polenta, crusty bread, or some other grain, for serving

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Pour tomato puree into bottom of a baking dish, approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the olive oil, and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.

Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube. On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.

Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit. Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.

Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them. Serve with a dab of soft goat cheese on top, alone, or with some crusty French bread, atop orzo, polenta, couscous, or your choice of grain.

Pot-Roasted Eggplant with Tomatoes and Cumin

So I was traveling over the long Labor Day weekend. And I was so exhausted when I got home yesterday that when I cooked dinner, I forgot to take a picture. Unforgivable, I know.

But this dish is so good that I have to post the recipe, even if it has no images to accompany it. It's an older Food & Wine recipe that's a favorite in our apartment. Despite the name the magazine editors gave it, it should really be called Pot-Roasted Eggplant with Tomatoes and Smoked Paprika, because that smoked paprika is what gives it the most amazing flavor. Don't even think about substituting regular paprika, because it won't be nearly as special.

The magazine refers to the dish as a salad, but I eat it as a meal with some brown rice or couscous. And you should, too.

Pot-Roasted Eggplant with Tomatoes and Cumin

• 1 large eggplant (1 1/4 pounds)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• Kosher salt
• 1 cup drained, canned diced tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon cilantro leaves
• 2 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• Freshly ground black pepper

Heat a large enameled cast-iron casserole (or any other large pot with a lid). Using a fork, prick the eggplant in a few places. Add the eggplant to the casserole, cover and cook over moderately low heat, turning once, until charred on the outside and soft within, about 40 minutes.

Transfer the eggplant to a colander set in the sink. Using a sharp knife, make a lengthwise slit in the eggplant; let drain for 10 minutes. Scrape the flesh into a bowl, discarding the skin and any hard seeds; mash to a puree and transfer to a large skillet. (I just put it back into the pot I used for roasting.)

Using the side of a large knife, mash the garlic to a coarse paste with 1 teaspoon of salt. Add the paste to the skillet along with the tomatoes, olive oil, parsley, cilantro, paprika, cumin and cayenne. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until all the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.