Sunday, January 21, 2007

Eggplant Supper Stew Recipe--a keeper!

My mother gave us bags and bags of frozen cooked eggplant. This might sound like a strange thing, definitely not found in any Wal-Mart freezer section. Well, let's just say my parents had a huge eggplant harvest in their garden this past summer. They are always giving away their fresh veggies by the baskets to their friends or neighbors, and still they have tons of tomatos, eggplants, green beans, etc. left at end of the season for freezing. I was getting very tired of eating these frozen eggplant by stir frying with onions and garlic. The dish is never as good as with fresh eggplants anyways. In an attempt to clear out our freezer and to make frozen eggplant more appetizing, I found this following recipe:

Eggplant Supper Stew
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Eggplant-Supper-Soup/Detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 pound ground beef
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 pound eggplant, diced
3/4 cup sliced carrots
3/4 cup sliced celery
2 (14.5 ounce) cans Italian diced tomatoes, drained
2 (14 ounce) cans beef broth
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry macaroni
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat, and cook the onion, beef, and garlic until beef is evenly brown. Drain grease, and mix in eggplant, carrots, celery, and tomatoes. Pour in beef broth. Mix in sugar, and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Cook and stir until heated through.
Mix macaroni into the soup, and continue cooking 12 minutes, or until macaroni is al dente. Mix in parsley. Top with Parmesan chreese to serve.


It was quite good! Tastes like a beef stew. BTW, I used way more oil than the recipe asked for; I cooked the veggies in ample oil before adding broth. I omitted the macaroni, parsley and parmesan cheese. Hubby suggested that I use chunky beef next time instead of ground beef.

I had it with baguette bread and hubby had some over his brown rice. This is a very good left-over food which is good since I made a whole pot of it. And best of all, this was a great way to use up the frozen eggplants! So, I'm ready next time mom stuffs our freezer full of eggplants!

2 comments:

Laurel said...

Looks yummy. I have been in a soup mood myself and have cooked 3 different soups this past week. Luckily all the other family member (excluding Zac of course) also seem to like soup. :)

SummerSky said...

What kind of soups did you make? It's hard to find good soup recipes. They are so good for eating through the week, although it's Wednesday and I'm getting a little tired of the same food.