Baba Ghanoush Stew

As it happens when you have millions of cookbooks, when you crave something you can never remember where it came from. And truthfully, most things don't actually come from cookbook recipes anyway - they are compilations of 5 recipes for the same thing. So I was thinking of an eggplant stew with big chunks of eggplant in a tahini sauce. This is what I came up with, and it was quite delicious! Now I have a recipe!

On the side is Quinoa and Cauliflower with Cranberries and Pine Nuts from Vegan Express. I added peas for color, and used cilantro instead of the parsley called for. Very tasty, and I am no fan of quinoa. In fact, if you have no cauliflower, just make it with the peas instead for a super easy side dish. Kid-meter: the 10 year old ate part of it, but then went to the pantry for Cheerios. The little ones would not even touch anything. But I loved it!

Eggplant and Chickpea Stew

1 large eggplant

olive oil

½ a large onion, cut lengthwise into strips

5 cloves garlic, sliced

2 medium tomatoes, cut in wedges

1 T tomato paste

1 c cooked chick peas

½ c water

½ t Aleppo pepper*

2 cloves garlic, crushed

3 T tahini

1 t sugar

1/8 t allspice

salt and lots of freshly ground pepper

juice of half a lemon

Cut eggplant into 1 ½ “ chunks. Salt cubes and cover with cold water. Soak for 15 minutes. Drain and pat dry with paper towels. Sautee in batches in hot olive oil, until lightly browned. Set aside.

Saute onions in olive oil until wilted. Add sliced garlic and cook until onions and garlic are starting to brown. Add some salt as they are cooking. Add eggplant, tomatoes, tomato paste, chickpeas, water, and Aleppo pepper. Cook for 15 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and cook another 10 minutes. You may need to add some more water. Serves 3-4.

* Aleppo pepper is kind of like tiny dried chili pieces. It is mildly spicy. If you don’t have it, add half as much crushed red pepper.