A Late Dinner - Curried Eggplant With Tomatoes and Basil

My semester is almost done!!! Only three take home finals left and then freedom - for a few weeks anyway...One of the best things about the end of classes is that I can focus more on cooking. My classes are at night, so on the three days that I had to drag myself to school, it was hard to put together anything but a quick meal. Yesterday we loaded up at the farmers market with fresh veggies with some good dinners in mind.

Last night's dinner ended up being super late, because we decided it was a good time to advance our photo setup and build a white-box (probably the wrong term) for light reflection. Needless to say, with building the setup, shooting the muffins we made (post on these later), and shooting the curry, dinner did not commence until about 8:45pm. Oh well.

This recipe is from Real Simple, which is my go to magazine for good recipes. As we had been stuffing ourselves with meat for the last week, I opted for this vegetarian dish. It looked light and simple, a perfect summer meal. The flavors were good, but lacked a little pop. We ended up sprinkling more salt and curry over our plates and that helped. Also, definitely serve with plain yogurt, it does wonders. All in all, the combination of eggplant, tomatoes, basil and curry is a winner. Thumbs up again RS!

I submitted this post to Magazine Mondays over at Cream Puffs in Venice for her blogging event.

Curried Eggplant With Tomatoes and Basil
four big servings

1 cup brown rice
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
1 eggplant (about 1 pound), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 15.5-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed
1/2 cup fresh basil
1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt (preferably Greek), optional

In a medium saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, combine rice, 1 1/2 cups water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Stir once, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 18 minutes. (Do not lift the lid or stir!) Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes; fluff with a fork before serving.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4 to 6 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, eggplant, curry powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Add 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until the eggplant is tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chickpeas and cook just until heated through, about 3 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the basil. Serve over the rice with yogurt, if using.