Masala Eggplant and Chickpeas
Here's Chickpea Creation Number Three. One of my favorite impromptu dinners in awhile. Here's what you do:
Heat the oven to 425. Chop up a big eggplant into 1/2" pieces and put them on a baking sheet. Add two cans of drained diced tomatoes and 2 cups of drained, cooked chickpeas (from a can or ones you've cooked). Mince 4 or 5 cloves of garlic and chop up a 2"knob of fresh ginger. Add those to the eggplant mixture along with a lot of olive oil, salt, and 1 tablespoon of garam masala. Roast for 20 minutes, stir, and roast for about 20 minutes more, until mixture is crispy on the edges and your whole kitchen is fragrant. Serve with brown rice and chopped cilantro, maybe a dallop of plain yogurt on top.
Have a wonderful weekend, favorite readers.
P.S. Mango season! Viet Wah on MLK has these beautiful boxes by the front door. We ate half the box in one day, our sink filling up with mango peels. Beautiful sight.
April 29, 2010
Reader Comments (16)
One of my favorite memories as a child is my dad cutting up mangos while us three kids sat like baby birds waiting for a strip of mango skin to eat any & all fruit off it (hit repeat). Needless to say, your sink would easily look like ours.
Maybe I'll make this when I host the Leadership Team. Looks like it would reheat well if I made it the night before? Like if I did the roasting day 1 and warmed in a crockpot day 2?
Looks terrific Sarah, and I'm not the biggest eggplant fan. I think the key is that bit of char!
I make something similar with potatoes instead of eggplant and it is a great side dish. I season with garlic and italian seasonings, but your spice ideas sound good too. Have a good weekend!!
I reheated it in the oven. Just spread everything out on a baking sheet again in a single layer, and it will heat up pretty quickly. You should add a little more oil and a splash of water, though, or the chickpeas get crunchy. I don't mind them crunchy...but be forewarned. If you heated it up in a crockpot, you won't have the crunchy issue, but you'll lose some of the crispy bits from the oven that made the texture so wonderful...
That sounds so easy and looks fabulous! How do you continue to create these amazing things? Do I remember you saying that your mom used to take you girls grocery shopping every day to get stuff for dinner? I've had Leo standing on a chair in the kitchen since he was 15 months in hopes that he'll love to cook. Mostly he loves to eat and dance. But that's good too.
What size cans of tomatoes?
14 oz.
Wow, this dish looks really fantastic. I love eggplant and chickpeas - never thought to combine them. Genius! :)
Great, I bought a 28 oz. can I think. I won't use two of those :)
This looks amazing. I'm going to try it tonight. This is my first time posting, but I've been reading for a while. I met you in line at Molly Moon's last summer and you gave me your blog address. I have struggled with cooking for a long time -- there have been a lot of Amy's frozen dinners around here -- but you've turned me around completely. The food I've been making is so delicious that I finally feel it's worth the effort to make it. As a mom of two young boys I've also enjoyed the stories about your sweet family. I'm so grateful that we struck up a conversation. Thanks for your generosity and time!
I made this last night, instead of Sunday night, and oh, the house smelled wonderful. Even if it didn't turn out well, which it did, it was worth it just for the aroma!! Next time, I might try substituting potatoes for the eggplant, as Elenor suggested. Thanks, Sarah, for another great recipe.
Jen, how wonderful to hear from you! I completely remember our conversation, and am so thrilled that you ended up here. I just love to hear about your recent kitchen success. Your story is exactly why I do this. Thanks for writing (and it's highly probably you might run into me at Molly Moon's again).
This looks delicious! I love curried aubergine to bits and am always looking for slightly different ways to try it.
I have the same chairs! :-)
[...] Masala eggplant and chickpeas! It seems like I always say this, but it really was very tasty and very easy to make – basically just toss everything on a baking sheet, roast it, make some rice, throw on some yogurt and cilantro parsley, and you’re done. Couldn’t be much easier, could it? [...]
Oh my gosh......this was eaaaasy and fabulous. My husband loved the flavors- so warm and so many ....and the rice got a bit crunchy so it added one more texture to the dish- Yuummm!! Thanks Sarah:-)