Weekend cooking: Eggplant-pepper dish

Kitchen experiments around the Holidays

I always look for cheap, healthy and palatable meals to prepare. 

When I cook, I experiment with healthy swaps for recipe ingredients, and constantly add or subtract products and spices. My kitchen is my laboratory. What is there to risk?  
  
During the winter, the weekends are open to cooking, since the garden is off limits and I am not a fan of the cold, harsh weather.

Recently I experimented with a vegetarian dish prepared with grilled eggplants and baked peppers. I usually prepare huge batches of meals on weekends, and freeze portions for the workweek dinners.  

Try this light dish along with the more festive and filling meals this Holiday season.



Eggplant-pepper dish

You need:
One large eggplant, 1 jar of roasted and peeled peppers (I used 33.5 oz jar, but one can increase the amount of eggplant and reduce the peppers, or use eggplant only), 6 or more garlic cloves, peeled and chopped, 1 can tomato sauce (I used Hunt’s with garlic and onion powder in it, 29 oz, but any type would do), 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil, salt, black pepper and parsley (optional).

Instructions: 

How to drain the excess eggplant liquid

Peel and cut the eggplant into 1/3 inch slices, rub with salt and let the slices drain for up to an hour. To removed the excess eggplant liquid, I arrange the salted slices in a pan, and lean the pan on one side to drain the liquid away from the eggplant (see the picture on the side). Before grilling, squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the eggplant. I use a double-sided grill, and five minutes of grilling per batch of eggplant is sufficient.  If you do not have a grill, fry the eggplant before adding it to the rest of the ingredients.

My old double-sided inside grill. Below is the image link 
to a newer version of the grill on Amazon.com.

In a pot on the stove top, combine the tomato sauce, 16 oz of water, garlic, peppers, salt, black pepper, and grilled eggplant. Bring to boil and reduce heat to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add some chopped parsley (optional) and turn the heat off. I serve the dish with toasted bread and feta cheese.


The new "lean mean fat grilling machine":

Cabbage meal

Where I grew up, vegetarian dishes were popular and constituted 6/7th of the weekly menu (only on Sundays we had a bit of meat, but it was always cooked with of heaps of vegetables).

Although I love vegetarian dishes, I hated cabbage meal, so once on my own, I never cooked it, .... that is – until now. One day, at work someone was warming his lunch and it smelled like cooked cabbage. It drove me insane. The following weekend I bought a cabbage and re-created the dish from my childhood. I savored it, but my family was lukewarm to the dish, to say the least. The recipe is below if you want to try it. In addition to having compounds that lower cholesterol and kill cancer cells, cabbage is high in fiber and cheap. It should be a staple in a healthy diet. For more information on the beneficial effects of cabbage, read this post.

Cabbage dish

You will need one large onion, one can tomatoes (any type, 15 oz or larger), one medium size cabbage, 4 Tbsp olive oil, and spices. Dice the onion and soften it in the heated oil. Chop the cabbage and add it to the pot with the onion. Stir and let it soften with the oil. Once the cabbage has softened, add some water to prevent burning and a can of tomatoes (sauce or chopped tomatoes, any size of can). I also add paprika, salt, hot pepper flakes or black pepper. Let the cabbage simmer until completely soft and most of the water is absorbed. I serve the dish with a crust of bread and cheese.