Recipe: Yummy Touille, an eggplant chickpea chili
I've made this recipe about four times now this year without writing down the recipe for good reason: it is specifically designed to mix up late summer vegetables and using what you have on hand is pretty much the point. But last time we ate it the menfolk in my family really exclaimed over it, so it's time to write it down. Plus, we're about to have a hard frost and that means I won't have any more of these veggies on hand until another year, so may as well remember it.
It starts with my chicken frying pan. I heat some olive oil in it and dice up some garlic and onion. While that is browning I finely chop a hot pepper or two and add that.
Most of the other times I then added a pound of hamburger to brown, but the time it turned out best I browned the hamburger by itself in another pan. I added salt at this step.
To the greasy/oily mix I add chopped up eggplant. I don't peel it or anything, just cube it. If there isn't much oil in the pan I added more for this step. I think it improved the eggplant for it to soak up olive oil instead of hamburger grease, so I liked adding the hamburger after the next step.
While that is browning I start coarsely chopping any tomatoes or tomatillos I have available. I toss them all in as soon as things are browned. Usually I have a bunch of tomatoes but last time I only had a couple and then I had a bunch of firm hard tomatillos, so I cut those up and added them. Because it didn't have enough tomato liquid I added two cans of RoTel diced tomatoes with peppers. I added the beef and covered that and let it cook for a while.
Then I remembered I had a zucchini that was starting to go by, so I chopped it up and added it. Note that my husband doesn't like peppers so I don't add bell peppers, but they belong here for anyone else.
Oh, and there was some cilantro, so I chopped that up and added it.
Then I opened a can of chickpeas, rinsed it thoroughly, and added it to the mixture. I let them heat into the stew for a while (the chickpeas were pre-cooked in the can) and then served it with parmesan cheese.
It's a full-bodied chili/stew that doesn't need rice or pasta and it uses up every eggplant and tomatillo I might have lying around from my farm share. I called it a form of "ratatouille" but my boys thought that sounded disgusting so I changed the name. I LOLd when I read that "ratatouille" means "traditional stewed vegetable dish with eggplants". Um, yeah. Once you start eating locally and in season you discover that you're doing a LOT of "traditional" recipes. Duh, that's how they got to be traditional. You're staring at a counter filled with eggplants, peppers, onions and tomatoes, your choices are going to be a bit constrained at that point.
It starts with my chicken frying pan. I heat some olive oil in it and dice up some garlic and onion. While that is browning I finely chop a hot pepper or two and add that.
Most of the other times I then added a pound of hamburger to brown, but the time it turned out best I browned the hamburger by itself in another pan. I added salt at this step.
To the greasy/oily mix I add chopped up eggplant. I don't peel it or anything, just cube it. If there isn't much oil in the pan I added more for this step. I think it improved the eggplant for it to soak up olive oil instead of hamburger grease, so I liked adding the hamburger after the next step.
While that is browning I start coarsely chopping any tomatoes or tomatillos I have available. I toss them all in as soon as things are browned. Usually I have a bunch of tomatoes but last time I only had a couple and then I had a bunch of firm hard tomatillos, so I cut those up and added them. Because it didn't have enough tomato liquid I added two cans of RoTel diced tomatoes with peppers. I added the beef and covered that and let it cook for a while.
Then I remembered I had a zucchini that was starting to go by, so I chopped it up and added it. Note that my husband doesn't like peppers so I don't add bell peppers, but they belong here for anyone else.
Oh, and there was some cilantro, so I chopped that up and added it.
Then I opened a can of chickpeas, rinsed it thoroughly, and added it to the mixture. I let them heat into the stew for a while (the chickpeas were pre-cooked in the can) and then served it with parmesan cheese.
It's a full-bodied chili/stew that doesn't need rice or pasta and it uses up every eggplant and tomatillo I might have lying around from my farm share. I called it a form of "ratatouille" but my boys thought that sounded disgusting so I changed the name. I LOLd when I read that "ratatouille" means "traditional stewed vegetable dish with eggplants". Um, yeah. Once you start eating locally and in season you discover that you're doing a LOT of "traditional" recipes. Duh, that's how they got to be traditional. You're staring at a counter filled with eggplants, peppers, onions and tomatoes, your choices are going to be a bit constrained at that point.