Saturday, March 28, 2015

Great Flavor, Extra Protein, and Vegetarian! Eggplant and Lobia Makhani for Meatless Monday.

   There are days when one is looking for an answer to the question "what to cook?" That doesn't happen all too often around our house but when it does, I go trolling to some of my favorite friends' sites to see what they've been up to looking for inspiration or an easy recipe. That is exactly what I found at my friend Sanjanas site K O Rasoi. She happened to be featuring a delicious looking Eggplant Makhani, but what sold me on the dish immediately was the fact that it could be made in my slow cooker in 3 freaking hours!!!!!!!

   Slow cooker, reasonable cooking time you had me at 3 hours!!! I knew this would be the perfect dish for a meatless Monday. Not only that but I'm nearly done with chemo, (only 3 more weeks to go) and so my energy is not the greatest, this slow cooker business sounded better and better. I'm also dealing with anemia which is a side effect of the chemo and so I decided to tweak the dish a bit by adding in some extra protein hit in the form of black eyed peas aka lobia. Chances are you have almost everything for this recipe right in your kitchen now, even if you don't do tons of Indian cooking. With that said, on to the recipe.

Eggplant, and Lobia Makhani served with Rice with Whole Spices


Here's What You'll Need: 

3 whole eggplants
1 package of frozen black eyed peas, or one 16 oz can
2  500grm bottles of passata (seived tomatoe pulp) you can find this at any market usually where the canned tomatoes or pasta sauce is sold. (I got mine at Whole Foods )
2 Tbs tomato paste
4 whole shallots finely chopped
1 Tbs grated ginger
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp garam masala
the seeds out of 6 cardamom pods, finely ground
1/4 tsp ground fennel seeds
3 small dried  red chilies finely chopped
50 grms melted unsalted butter
1 and 1/2 Tbs of sugar
3 tsp salt
100 ml of whipping cream
1 tsp of crumbled dried methi
toasted flaked almonds for garnish
chopped fresh cilantro to garnish

Here's What To Do:

Wash and chop your eggplants into 1 inch squares.


Put them into your slow cooker.


Add in the finely chopped ginger.


Chop and mince the shallots, add them to the eggplant in the slow cooker.


Pour in the bottles of sieved tomato pulp.


Add in the tomato paste.


Add in the ground coriander and garam masala.


Crush the cardamom pods.


Take out the seeds, grind them and toss them in.
Grind the fennel seeds.


Toss them in too.


Add in the chopped dried red chilies.


Add in the salt and sugar add in the melted butter.


Stir everything around so all the spices are well mixed together.


Turn on the slow cooker to high and the timer to three hours.


After an hour and a half, give everything a good stir, check and see how your eggplants are coming along.
Add in the black eyed peas
Then go about your business, this is Me Time.
When 3 hours are up check your eggplants, nice and tender?
Add in the whipping cream...


...and the ground methi.


Check your seasoning and add salt if needed.
Stir everything together and serve it up! Decorate each plate with a sprinkled of the slivered almonds and sprinkle of the chopped fresh cilantro.


I served my eggplant with Basmati rice with whole spices. You can add roti or naan bread or whatever you wish. You can even make this ahead of time (night before) and just rewarm it on the stove. Delightful, warm, spicy, the perfect early spring  slow cooker meal for a Meatless Monday.


   I want to thank Sanjana for turning me on to this amazing dish which was literally just what the doctor ordered for me! It allowed me the extra protein I needed, without  bothering with meat. This is staying in the permanent rotation at our house. I even froze the leftovers. What's next? More super easy dishes because...why not!? Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

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