Aubergine and Kibbeh Stew

Aubergine and kibbeh stew (1).JPG

Recreating leftovers into new dishes is not an art, it just requires a bit of creativity in the kitchen. Leftover vegetables are easily combined or baked into new dinners. If you like the food that's leftover but just don't want to eat more of it now, freeze it in portion sizes or family dinner sizes ready to defrost and consume later. This has been my saviour on many occasions when I had a busy schedule and especially during the covid lockdown. Just be sure to label your container, so you don’t have a frozen mystery dish and always write the frozen by date.

Aubergine! As a child, I would always say "no way I am eating that! “I hated it, hated it and hated any way it was cooked. I can’t really think of a valid reason for why, but now I am very fond of it.

Apart from being one of my favourite and delicious, aubergine is healthy and packed with vitamin C, K and B6. It is also loaded with dietary fibres, antioxidants and minerals.

Incorporating this vegetable into a calorie-controlled diet is excellent as it is considerably low in calories. 100 g equals around 25 calories only.

This stew was created using leftover kibbeh dough and whatever vegetables were in my fridge. If you don’t have a meat grinder, then you can make my express kibbeh dough.

This recipe is genuinely healthy, easy and quick.

Servings: 4

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Start to finish: 50 minutes

cooking: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 600 grams Eggplant

  • 2 peppers

  • 1 1/4 kilograms tomato, peeled and pureed

  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste

  • 6 cloves garlic

  • 1 large onion

  • 300 grams kibbeh dough or what ever you have left over

  • 1 teaspoon cumin

  • 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads

  • 1 Lumi (dried lime)

  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

  • 1/2 tablespoon Himalayan salt, Himalayan

  • 1 1/2 cups water

Method:

· Soak the saffron in the water and leave to infuse.

· Peel, and puree the tomato.

· Slice the onion and garlic thinly and saute in the vegetable oil.

· Add the tomato paste and saute for a minute, then add the fresh pureed tomato, the cracked Lumi, cumin powder, black pepper and salt.

· Leave until the sauce thickens a bit as in the video.

· Peel the aubergine as seen in the video and slice into 2 cm discs. This helps hold the shape of the aubergine.

· Deseed and slice the peppers.

· Prepare the kibbeh dough into discs the same size as the aubergine discs and set on a plate.

· Remove the pot from the fire and now start to add the ingredients in repeating pattern.

· Lay an aubergine slice, then a kibbeh disc then a piece of pepper and keep repeating the order. You can start with any order as long as you continue in the same manner.

· Pour the saffron water on top, cover and cook on medium-low heat until everything is cooked and the sauce is thickened to your liking. Adjust the salt and serve hot with bread

Notes:

· You can add any vegetables you like.

· You can find basic kibbeh dough recipe HERE, but if you don’t have a meat grinder, you may follow my express kibbeh recipe HERE using your hands only.

· If you don't have saffron, you may add 2 teaspoons of turmeric.

Per Serving excluding kibbeh: 228 Calories; 12g Fat (42.0% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 31g Carbohydrate; 8g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 932mg Sodium.

Maha NComment