Ingredients in MT’s Eggplant Chickpea Tomato Casserole include the three ingredients in the name plus garlic and olive oil and cheese. After she set up this photo, she added mozzarella and garden herbs to the mix.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Well, maybe ….. try it yourself and decide
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Our test cook coaxed one reluctant newsroom taste tester to give the Eggplan Chickpea Tomato dish a try by comparing it to pizza.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Wanting to have enough to share with the newsroom taste testers as well as her family, our test cook filled two pans with the Eggplant Chickpea Tomato dish.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
When I brought my Eggplant Chickpea Tomato casserole to the newsroom on Friday, I didn’t have to coax page designer Ashley Bringmann or columnist Bill O’Boyle to try it.
“I love eggplant,” Ashley said, before declaring the dish “very flavorful, from the first bite.”
Bill also admitted to liking eggplant, and said he appreciated having something to eat before heading over to Wilkes Unversity, where he knew he’d spend hours waiting to cover Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech.
“It’s very good,” he said of the dish.
Later, sportswriter Kevin Carroll was about to decline a sample when I tried coaxing.
“With the tomato and cheese on top,” I told him, “it’s like a pizza.”
“Ashley,” I called across the room. “The eggplant dish is kind of like a pizza, isn’t it?”
“A little,” she said, sounding doubtful.
Thus encouraged, Kevin tried it and said “I liked it better than I expected. I would definitely eat it again. The top actually is like a pizza.”
But, he added, the eggplant and chickpeas in the layers below still are not high on his list of favorite foods.
I’ve made this dish several times, but never served it to the newsroom until now. And since I really like it, I actually made two casseroles, one for the newsroom and one for my family.
At home Mark — who is not an eggplant fan — described it merely as “OK.” And when I took some over to my Mom — also not an eggplant fan — she dutifully ate some and even had another helping the next day; she liked it much better after the flavors had more time to permeate.
And if you like to know why a particular food might be good for you, the Mayo Clinic Health System says on its website that “blue and purple” fruits and vegetables contain compounds “associated with improved brain health and memory. They also help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of stroke and heart disease. Good sources include blueberries, blackberries, eggplant, figs, purple cabbage, concord grapes and plums.”
And while I made two casseroles, here is a recipe for one:
EGGPLANT CHICKPEA TOMATO CASSEROLE
1 medium or 2 small purple eggplant
3 (15 ounce each) cans of garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
3 cloves of garlic
several tablespoons olive oil
dash of lemon juice or vinegar
28-ounce can of diced tomatoes or use fresh tomato slices
1 onion (optional)
8 ounces of grated cheese (I used Parmesan and mozzarella)
Chopped herbs for garnish (I used parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme)
Slice the eggplant into 1/4-inch slices, drizzle both sides with olive oil and line bottom of 9×13-inch baking dish with them.
Using a food processor or a hand masher, blend together garbanzo beans, 3 garlic cloves, about 2 tablespoons of olive oil plus a dash of lemon juice or vinegar. That makes several cups of hummus to spread over the eggplant, as the second layer.
For the third layer, the tomato layer, use either 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes or a few fresh tomatoes, sliced, to cover the hummus.
If you like onions, the fourth layer can be an onion, sliced and sauteed in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
After that, grate and add your favorite cheese, plus a small amount of fresh herbs for garnish and bake, covered, at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving and add a few more chopped herbs to the top if you like.