Monday, June 22, 2009

eggplant, veggies, & seeds

This is one of my favorites now. I finally learned how to make eggplant: you have to cook it enough for it to get really tender--at least for my tastes. The pressure cooker is perfect for that.  But this dish will work fine one a conventional stove--just cook for a long time.  Which reminds me,  the PC is a great summer appliance because it cooks things so quickly.  I highly recommend it!  Here is the one I got:

Ingredients:
1 eggplant
1 bunch of kale, or more if you'd like
a bunch of mushrooms, 8-16 oz
a leek or onion
any other veggie you want to throw in or subsitute--zucchini, for example.
2 16-oz cans of tomatoes (or 1 if you want)
herbs or italian spices or other spices (I used stuff currently in my garden:  chives, cilantro, tarragon, parsley.  The basil isn't ready yet).
ground seeds, I used hemp, sunflower, pumpkin.  I did 4 Tbsp but I might do 6 next time.

Peel and cut up the eggplant.  Cut up the kale, mushrooms and leek/onion.   Here's how I made it in the pressure cooker:  cooked the eggplant in 1/2 cup water for 2 minutes.  Then added the kale and onions for another 2 minutes.  Then added everything else for another minute.   For conventional stove, cook the eggplant, onions, kale and tomatoes for about 20 minutes, then add everything else for another 10.  that's my guess.  maybe cook the eggplant for even longer.

The ground seeds remind me of ricotta cheese so this feels kind of like an Italian dish.  

You can add beans or edamame too.   I often add edamame to the leftovers.

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