Baked Garbanzos

I really love garbanzo beans. Their rich and somewhat nutty flavor works well with many different types of flavors, particularly string flavors like feta cheese and garlic. I had plenty of dried garbanzos in my cupboard, time to cook them up and lots of odds and ends of other food that I wanted to use up. I decided to make baked garbanzos and incorporate the odds and ends into the recipe. I’ve written out what I improvised this particular time. This concept works well with other families of flavors as well as the Mediterranean slant in this version.  Canned beans also work.

Baked Garbanzos

2 cups of cooked/canned garbanzo beans, drained.

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

1 scant tablespoon of capers

3 tablespoons of crumbled feta cheese

2 garlic cloves minced to a paste or pressed

2 tablespoons of white wine

3/4 cup of tomato puree

2 roasted red peppers, minced

1/4 cup of parsley, minced

1 cup of mozzerella cheese, shredded (completely optional–I had it and wanted to use it, so I threw it in)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Pour the drained garbanzos into a baking dish in a single layer. Toss with the tomato paste until coated.

Garbanzos covered with tomato paste

Stir in the rest of the ingredients except for the mozzarella. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Cover with mozzarella if you’re using it and bake until melted another 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Ready for the oven

That’s it! It’s that easy.

Stuffed Eggplant

I love this dish. It’s more of a concept/ springboard than a recipe, since you can basically put whatever you want in it within a basic formula: mostly the insides of the eggplant, and grains , with smaller amounts of some or all of the following: other veggies (diced), herbs, nuts/seeds, cheese and beans. Even though it makes a really nice presentation, sometimes I skip actually stuffing the filling back into the eggplant skins, because there is always more than will fit and it cooks up just fine in a casserole dish.

The original idea came from the latest edition of the classic Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. I generally follow the “Mediterranean Style” variation in the book as my basic recipe and adapt it depending on what looks good in the market/garden, what I feel like having and what I have on hand.

This does take a little while to pull together, but you can carry out most of the steps simultaneously.

Rice is cooking, onions and celery are sauteing, eggplants ready to be roasted

I prefer boiling brown rice on the stove top to steaming it. I think you get fine results in a lot less time.

Let it boil...

I’m serious. Some people already know this, but I still get funny looks from other people when I mention it.

Instead of the usual 1 cup rice to 2 cups liquid, you do about 5 cups of liquid to 1 cup rice it usually takes between 20-25 minutes to cook, although I like to start checking at 15 minutes. The obvious danger is that you could overcook it to mush if you don’t pay attention. You can certainly add more liquid if necessary during the cooking. Once it’s done, I drain it in a small strainer that fits over top of the pan. I put a couple of inches of water in the pan,put the heat on med and let the rice sit over the steam for no more than ten minutes. If I need it to stay warmer longer, I cover it and turn the heat off, so it doesn’t get mushy.

While the rice is cooking, I roast the eggplant (about 25 minutes on 375 F), saute onions, garlic and celery, and chop up whatever else I might be using in the filling. This time I used lots of fresh parsley, lemon juice, capers, pine nuts, a few artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers and feta cheese.

Greek Rice Pilaf

I take the eggplant out when the rice is done ( but I leave the oven on, as I’ll need it to finish the dish). Once I am done mixing up the rest of the filling, the eggplant is generally cool enough to handle. I use a spoon to scoop out the flesh. If I am going to stuff the mix back into the skins, I leave just enough behind to give the skins some structure. If I am going to cook it in a dish, I’ll scrape it all out.

Once assembled , it’s another 20-30 minutes in the oven and it’s ready.

The finished eggplants. I like to top them with smoked mozzerella.

Usually one eggplant half per person is enough ( using three whole, medium sized eggplants) when served with other side dishes.